Bren's Wargaming

More ATZ!

2010-12-04T21:41:00.000-08:00

Game 1:

Again I headed to the LGS today with ATZ, some buildings and zombies. A friend of mine had a buddy in town and wanted to play some THW games. Since I’m a bigger fan of ATZ than 5150 (currently) I set up a simple ‘town’ and away we went. Each player was to start with a rep 4 civilian star (rolling two abilities and picking the one to keep). A fourth player wanted to try it out, so we split into two teams playing on a 4x6 board.

It didn’t go well… The end game was two idling cars and two turns of no action by the humans allowing the zeds to swarm both cars. One car (driven by me) managed to kill all the on zeds attacking while idling only to hit a zed and flip the car putting both passengers out of the fight!

There is our car, flipped with both humans OOF and no one to help them.

The other car was attacked and the driver was put out of the fight. The passenger was able to drive the car out of the area, but not before kicking the driver to the curb. In the zombie apocalypse, everything goes.

You can see where both cars are and why we were doomed to fail, 24 dice per turn!

Results: 3 KIA, 1 survived

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Game 2:

Another person who was watching was asked and decided to play. We moved to being gangers trying to take back the suburban area. Again each player is a rep 4 star. The first building held two gangers and the talk-the-talk moved to walk-the-walk and the enemy ganger leader (rep 4) gets the drop on our guy and fires a shotgun blast. Only the cover of the building and the bad die rolling saved our guy who fired his BA pistol dropping the guy! The other ganger makes his checks and will fire back when next active. In the end, our two guys manage to drop the guy, but now 7 zombies are busting at the doors and the two gangers leave the two OOF guys to act as food to slow the zombies. Our group now having about 15 to 20 zeds in the area begins to run off.

Here we have three of our gangers looking down 11 closely zed!

Here is our other two gangers checking cars and hitting zeds!

A car alarm goes off and all gangers hid in a building finding a sixth ganger (another person wanted to play) allowing the 20-25 zeds move slowly towards the alarming car (I decided that on doubles, a random effect would occur if that player rolled doubles again and a double 4 was car alarm). The zombies stay in the area for 5 turns until the alarm shuts off and the zeds begin to move again. We decide that it has gotten out of hand and attempt to flee. Splitting up, two jump into a car and the rest run to the other (we… er… one of us found two sets of keys). While heading to the cars, one of us happened to be within 12 inches of the zeek swarm who came from behind a building and an In Sight test later, all 30+ zombies begin to shuffle towards us.

The alarm of the car at the bottom of the picture is going off creating a possible 3 zeds a turn, but steering the zeds away from the humans...

One of us (the newbie) decides that he wants the shotgun and machine pistol that the two food… er… dead gangers and heads off. The zombie swarm follows. One car races off the board but the second fails to start, but it breaks about 10 zeds to turn about towards the car. The newbie tries to catch up to the car dragging the other 20 back towards the second car.

I flee toward the edge where the first car fled since I didn’t make it to the car, but the zeds created by that noise are able to charge (well actually one of them and even though I was a knifeman with a blade, I fail in combat going OOF). The newbie tried to check on me and head off, but before he was able to check me, 4 zeds are able to charge him and he also goes OOF. We keep zeds busy for 4 turns!

The second car has taken down (ran over) 14 zeds and made every check...

Meanwhile, the second car gets moving and begins to head off the map. With a turn of no player activations, the swarm catches up to them. The driver makes 24 successful “out of control” checks doing donuts running over the zeds before being able to move themselves. There are two zeds in the way and the car lurches forward killing one and knocking the second one. On the final zed until freedom, the driver loses control of the vehicle flipping it and causing both occupants to go OOF. The zombies slowly move over to the car finishing off the last of the two gangers…

Even if you make 25 checks, it's the one you fail that matters!

Results: 2 survivors (car with 1 unit of fuel), 4 KIA. One of the survivors goes up a rep becoming a rep 5!

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Game 3:

We decided to play a third game with those that died having a 50-50% chance in losing a rep. It turns out that of the 4 dead, I’m the only one that is a rep 3 (athlete) and our newly created leader decides to head to another suburban area with a military outpost in it to collect some resources. With the rep 5 ganger leader and some really great die rolls, we are able to make short work of the area barely making a dent in my 48 zombie horde (we learned our lesson I guess). At the time that we left, we had only 5 zeds on the board (and two gangers hanging out in the top floor of the military building).

Results: 6 Survive (3 are now Rep 5, 2 stay at Rep 4 and 1 goes to Rep 4). We found a machete, 9 units of food, some meds, a bow, but not a single drop of fuel. Looks like we are hoofing it to our next location…

Whew! This was a long report. I think I am going to run a couple of these at the local gaming convention in March. I need more zeds, some ragers and a bunch of survivors. ..

All Things Zombie

2010-11-27T12:12:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday a couple friends of mine decided to play a little All Things Zombie by Two Hour Wargames. Each of us took a rep 5 civilian star and a rep 4 civilian buddy. Due to a friend saying there was an unknown umbrella Corp. in the area, we play in an urban area. I balked, but my idea was shot down so urban area it was.

The board was a 4’x4’ affair with eight buildings and two “roads” (we were unable to really pull much terrain since we were at the game store and there was a tournament that day). Still we managed to make a fairly “rustic” looking urban with the terrain that we had available (note to self: Pick up some grey felt to act as roads).

I didn’t take really good notes, but the board started with ~25 zeds on the map (I only have 48 assembled and painted). We made a couple of mistakes with the rules… again. Still it was a good time. What happened you say?

Well, my star was charged by three zeds from a building when my companion fled the area (one of the mistakes – she ‘retired’, but we didn’t read the rest of the rules on what should have happened) and I was forced to deal with allof them. A shotgun blast later, one zed was down but the other two stunned my star. A bad activation roll later saw those two zeds devour her (well in three, maybe 4 turns).

On the far right of the picture, you can see where my fallen star is (the orange dice are the removed building).

The other group found a couple of people in a building who decided to follow them for the remainder of the scenario. That group walked out of the building to a tide of zombies. In the melee that followed the Star fell to 4 zeds (and was feasted on later). The rest sped around the building and then saw the 10+ zeds heading towards them and fled the board.

A feeding freezy on the other player's star!

The final group slowly moved killing the needed zeds in their way and made it into a church where they found 2 zeds. Quickly dispatched, they searched the building and found a S.A.W. (another of our mistakes – this time using the risk and rewards cards). Once obtained, the pair made their way off the board.

The two looking down at the approaching hoard!

By this time, there were 54 zombies on the board (using plastic stand ins), 3 KIA, 1 possible infected and 3 survivors (two who went their own way). A fun time had by all!

I realized that I need to get a lot of zombie hunters painted up (with an array of weaponry) if we are going to do these games on a regular basis. I also decided that the 48 zombies are good for all but the massive urban area games. Now that I'm reading the new I Zombie book, I’ll need to find some cool looking Ragers!

Blood Bowl!

2010-11-24T10:02:00.000-08:00

Whew! It has been a long time since I have made a blog post. Thankfully the lack of post is not due to a lack of gaming! One of my favorite Games Workshop games has had resurgence in the area which has me gaming almost twice a week now. The game I’m talking about is none other than Blood Bowl. If you haven’t tried this little gem, I recommend it! Simple rules and a fun campaign system and you only need around 13- 16 figures! We have a league going on (season 3). I even got my wife into it which in itself shows how great the game is!

So, without further ado, lets take a look at some teams (painted as well).

First off are the “Wildfire Witches” – my current team in the league (season 3). The miniatures come from Shadowforge miniatures and are great sculpts. I have 4 “Blitzers” and 4 “catchers” in order to play them as a variety of blood bowl team. Right now, I use them as Elves, but they can also stand in as high elves and amazons. I am in fourth in my division having a string of bad luck. Be warned, armor 7 is not for the weak of heart…

Here is a picture of the Blitzers and Catchers!

Another picture showing the linebunnies, throwers and the two catchers

Next, we put on a tournament on a couple weeks ago and instead of playing something “competitive”, I decided to play Ogres - thus the Gnomish Gearworks team was born. Instead of the normal ogres and snotlings, I went for a different approach and found some old mage knight golems to stand in for the ogres and tiny gnomes to stand in for the snotlings (the gnomes are actually 15mm gnomes produced by peter pig). I actually painted the little gnomes myself using dip method to get them done in a hurry. All in all, they turned out pretty good!

With a strength of only 1 and an armor of 5, snotlings don't stay on the pitch long!

Lastly, a “while” ago a friend of mine went to a GW Game’s Day and picked up an undead team which he eventually sold to me. I didn’t know at the time that I had a complete team of undead (20 miniatures total). This team is the one that my wife is playing and she’s getting fairly good with the rules, but now needs to work on strategy!

Here are the Mummies (right), Wights (middle) and Ghouls (left)

and the skeletons

and don't forget the zombies.

At the time of writing this, I have a new team on the way (Necromantic) as well as the needed figures to flesh out a human team. Was going to play the ogres as my next premiere team, but after the tournament, I decided that it wasn’t going to be all that fun…

I have a lot of back log stuff to talk about. Hopefully, I can get it all done over the Thanksgiving break!

Gencon - 2010 (LONG)

2010-08-13T13:01:00.001-07:00

Last week was Gencon and again I went for all four days! It was a lot of fun and if you are any kind of gamer and in the area, I recommend it!

Wednesday – Day 0

Like last year, I decided to “Cull the Herd” and sell some of my games. In the end I had two containers full with 31 auctions. I had a mix of games that I was looking to sell and a bunch of old 3rd edition Dungeons and Dragons. After a couple of hours of waiting in line (I pre-registered all my stuff this year), I got out of there happy that everything was in there.

My purchases started that day since I went and bought the Privateer Press Ram shirt like I have every year (it’s a tradition – like the hirstart mold). Once done, I headed to the Game Preserve (the local game store) for Urbie Wars! It’s a fun little pre-Gencon Battletech event that is a King of the Hill scenario. One of the guys had a bunch of Urbies – that’s Urbanmech for the masses – one of the crappiest mechs in the game and we tear about a heroscape board trying to kill each other. It’s a whole lot of fun (and very tongue in cheek). I managed to not be killed this year, but I able couldn’t hit anything so I probably was the most ineffective mechjock in the most ineffective mech (it’s a talent).

After the event, it was time to head to a friend’s house where I stay for the convention (he lives 15 minutes from the convention).

Spending: $20.00

Thursday – Day 1

I was helping at the Privateer Press booth most of the morning/afternoon so there isn’t much to tell here. I demo’ed all of the games since I was doing the break shifts. I like the break shifts since they are a bit shorter, but more importantly, I get to do all the games so I never get bogged down on any single table. It works for me and my style... The only downside is I have to keep current on all their games, but I got that so what can you do!

That evening, I had an obvious zombie event (it was called the Umbrella Chronicles). As fate would have it, the game system that we were played under was Ares (by Majestic Twelve Games - www.MJ12games.com) which was on the description, but I somehow missed it. Actually, the game itself was a mash of Ares and ATZ (from two hour wargames). It took a little time to get back into how the mechanics worked, but soon we were playing and keeping the game moving. In the end, I was surrounded by zombies in the middle of the field I was trying to escape) and was slowly mauled (normally you only get a +1/die if you are outnumbered, but zombies get to add an additional +1/die for each extra zombie in the fight – when my final models died, I had 4 zombies on both my remaining characters they were rolling +4/die or +8 – bloodbath). Still the game was a blast and I have played Ares with that GM at Origins a couple years ago. The refinements that he has made to the game have really made it work.

If you look closely, I'm in the middle of all those zombies near the yellow truck.

Friday – Day 2

Friday was jammed packed with events for me. I really loved being able to pre-reg for events. My first one was a Malifaux Demo. Both of us to play the demo had a basic understanding of the game, but we only got into the second turn before we had to stop. Still, it was a great little game and to be honest, any game that requires only 5 to 10 models is awesome! We didn’t get through much of it, but I really enjoyed the demo and the game system has some real cool concepts and ideas. I’ll have to put that on my watch list once the Great Painting is complete!

My Malifaux models line up for a picture!

I had about two hours in the dealer’s room and I spent that wondering about with Jarrod (and getting a Dr. Who cup for Meghan). We just combed through the hall and I was making a mental list of all the places that I wanted to stop on my larger shopping break on Saturday. I did manage to play a little bit of Claustrophobia before having to head to my next game (it wasn’t that bad, but it’s only for 2 players).

From noon to 4pm, I was scheduled to play in Battlestations – Bot Wars. Due to the number of players, both brothers ran a game and since I kinda knew what was going on in Bot Wars, I moved and played with Jason in a Deep Ones in Deep Space game. My returning character is a mad genius and get into trouble with sanity check more often than you would think! Still, the game was a blast and we barely made it out with our lives (go us).

Right after that, I moved to the main mini’s hall and played in a Star Wars – Full Thrust game. I played on the rebel’s side looking to destroy one (or more) of the Star Destroyers. We had the option in setting a trap for the Imperial players and it worked perfectly! We skirted out of our hiding place and got one of the smaller Star destroyers with minimal damage to ourselves. It was a lot of fun for us, but I’m sure that the Imperials (who were way out of position once we showed up and as a result got barely any shooting in) would say otherwise.

The trap works perfectly and the Star Destroyers are facing the wrong way!

Finally I had a Desperado game sponsored by 19 & 1 gaming group (they are based in Indianapolis and I used to hand out with them when I lived up there – heck, I was a member of the club for a while). Due to a scheduling issue, I had to leave after a single hour, but I did get a head shot in before I left killing a guy outright (thankfully, you got to come back in once killed). After the hour was up, it was time to run to the Press Ganger party at Jillian’s. I thought it started at 9pm, but it was really 8pm, so I missed the demo of the computer game that is coming out (heard from others that it was sweet).

Saturday – Day 3

My first game was a Song of Blades and Heroes game and it was a lot of fun (even if a bit one side – action-wise). The scenario was that the dwarves are looking to settle the score and reclaim their lost items. In my case (since I played the dwarves), I was looking to kill the Rat-man and take back an anvil that was stolen. My opponent had lower quality than me and really had a tough time keeping his warband together. Using my better quality (and thus more actions), I was able to take the battle to his flank and kill some of his rat-man and then slowly grinded away the middle until finished.

I actually had a game from noon to 4pm (Circus Magicus), but due to a major problem, I didn’t have any time to really check the dealer’s hall. Due to that, I had to cancel that event. In the end, I should have played in that cuz it looked great (and the home-brew rules were promising) instead of the SBH (since I’ve played a bunch of that). In any case, these four hours were the only time that was going to get to all my purchases done.

Without really slowing down to look at anything else, I went to ‘work’. I had a list of all the booths I needed to stop at and I quickly went from one side to the other getting all my stuff. I did get a ‘demo’ of Settlers of America and it was good game (and I needed it to complete my Catan good set and my 50% off a game). My only beef was that the demo lasted 45 minutes and was a bit too long for me (give me a 15 minute demo – I have stuff to do). Of course, once I got all my goods (did some serious trading – Ore for Wood, Grain for Clay and Clay back for Wood) and was looking to buy Settlers of America, the coupon was not usable for it so I picked up Nuns on the Run instead.

The buys: A battlefoam Warmachine bag ($145), the Iron Dynasty RPG book using the Savage Worlds Ruleset ($25) - I thought it was going to have more in the skirmish side of things in it, but that’s okay should be an interesting read regardless. Then a starter deck for World of Warcraft: the card game (Jarrod and I did get a game in and it was only 5 bucks with a coupon so what can I say – it was an impulse buy). Next was Deep Ones in Deep Space for Battlestations($20), a Devil’s Panties Comic - after all this time reading that comic, I finally got to meet the artist and I totally geeked out ($20). Lastly, the above mentioned Nuns on the Run game ($18).

At 4pm, both Meghan and I had a WEGS Old Skool (see http://www.gamewick.com/ )game called Tale of the Trojan Pig (ran by one of the ‘designers’ in the Table Top Gamers area – a great set of guys/gals based out of Ohio). The game was a basically a long-winded demo, but it was entertaining and that system is quite good for the quick ‘hack and slash’ game of old. Personally, I think it would be a lot easier to run it as a boardgame than say Descent (less prep, still a ton of options). Definitely need to get into the larger games for the next year. Did I just say I was going to move away from miniatures at a convention to play in a RPG???

See, a Trojan Pig!

Spending: $233 + $40 just now for the new edition of WEGS

Sunday – Day 4
The final day, I worked for Privateer Press. I started in the Iron Arena area, but due to a double booking, I actually found myself giving breaks in the dealer’s hall. Not a big deal, but I didn’t want to completely kill my voice. Thankfully, the hall was more subdued and I didn’t have to scream the entire time (like Thursday). Once the hall closed, I helped with some minor clean up and got to heading home! No buys and no ‘fun’ on the final day – just work!

Final Thoughts:

Of the 31 things I put up for auction/sale, all but 4 sold netting me just over $500. After the 15% processing fee, my total take home was around $420. Not a bad haul if you think about it. Now the remainder of the money from Gencon is going to probably get me a better Subbuteo setup.

Red Sand, Blue Sky

2010-08-01T17:21:00.000-07:00

After reading all the battle reports on this game I went ahead and picked it up. After reading the rules for myself, it was time to get into the arena and finally play a game. So excited about this game, I made an arena for all my gladiator combats using a pizza pan (see previous entry). I don’t have any actual gladiator figures, but I have a ton of fantasy figures laying about so I grabbed a couple and placed them in the arena for the first contest! I have been thinking and talking about working a more fantasy spin on RSBS since I purchased it. However, since this is my first technical game of RSBS, I decided that I should use the regular rules and not add any specials, weapon or armor modifications into the mix.

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In the early morning light, two gladiators face off for what could be the start of their glorious careers. Our first combatant is a lizardman Retiarius named G’agg and our second combatant is a human Secutor named Fetch. Both are REP 4 on the Fringes of the Empire (whatever that would be in my fantasy world)…
Both combatants are sent into the arena and the fighting (and betting) begins in earnest…

The first turn sees both move straight towards each other. Fetch closes the distance, but it looks like G’agg will still get to throw his net! G’agg lets it fly, but Fetch grabs it out of the air and causes a tug of war! Both gladiators fight with all their might, but in the end, the net is flung useless to the ground.

Both square off in the arena

Fetch moves in grabbing the initiative (again) and strikes at G’agg (not having enough movement for a bash). What looked like a telling blow turned to be a mere scratch on the left arm of G’agg. G’agg doesn’t opt to flank and attack and both exchange ineffective attacks. G’agg grabs the initiative, but both fighters fail to damage their opponent. Fetch seeing a possible opening attempts to flank and attack, but G’agg was ready for him and all Fetch does is tire himself out (G’agg passed one more die then Fetch). Wanting to conserve strength, Fetch backs down for this attack and it works. It looks like G’agg saw an opening that wasn’t there and wastes energy on nothing (Fetch rolled a single die, where G’agg rolled 3 – no successes for either however).

Current die pools:
Fetch at 12, G’agg at 11

G’agg retains the initiative looks to flank Fetch and end this, caught a bit off guard, Fetch wastes some energy and gets a spear shot into his upper Left Leg causing him to stumble back (G’agg passes one more die then Fetch and forces him to spend a 1d10 to keep G’agg to his front). On the attack, G’agg hits Fetch in the unprotected upper left leg and causes a wound that does a total of 3d10 and pushes him back an inch). Not to be outdone, Fetch rushes back in to attempt to win this battle, but G’agg is faster and stabs Fetch for a deep cut into his chest. Exhausted Fetch falls to the ground. G’agg is awarded his first (of many?) Laurel wreaths (and 4 AP). In the coming months both of Fetch’s wounds do not heal correctly and he is sold off never to combat again…

G'agg stands victorious over his foe!

Final thoughts: The game plays great. Between this and Fight Night Fights, I feel there is a lot more options available for the player to choose in RSBS than in FNF. Still, I can't wait to play again.

Gladiator Arena!

2010-08-01T12:14:00.001-07:00

There have been a lot of people playing Red Sands, Blue Sky (RSBS) on the THW forum so I went ahead and bought the game while at Origins. After reading through the rules, it occurred to me that I was going to need a suitable gladiator arena for my combats. In a bit of inspiration, I realized that if I could find a decently sized pizza pan, that I could have a quick (and cheap) gladiator arena! A trip to Walmart netted me a 16” metal pizza pan for a mere 4 bucks.

I scuffed it up with some sandpaper and placed felt on the bottom to keep it for sliding (yellow was on sale).

Then, I glued down a mix of sand and rocks (I find that the best time to get my 'perfect' rock mix is to get some from roads during winter - my city uses sand instead of salt for the roads).

Next step was to spray painted the whole thing brown (I use the cheap spray paint for terrain. I think the can cost about 2 bucks).

A couple of lighter browns and a few tan colors later, I had a nice effect. Clear coated it with cheap matte spray and was ready to play! I found out later that the pizza pan that I bought is metallic and I can add terrain to the arena with a couple of strong magnets (talk about convenient)!

Origins!

2010-07-20T08:36:00.000-07:00

The last week in June was Origins Game Fair, a four day gaming convention in Columbus, Ohio. A group of my friends and I go every year and it’s always a good time. This year didn’t disappoint in the slightest.

Thursday – Day 1

I was helping Privateer Press run a Warmachine/Hordes tournament so I had to be at the convention center around 9am. I got my badge and my pre-reg tickets (not a fun prospect this year) and was the Co-tournament organizer for the morning and most of the afternoon. After the tournament was finished I wandered through the Dealer‘s Hall seeing if there was anything that I wanted/needed to buy. In the end, I went ahead and picked up the new Risk’s and Rewards card for ATZ by Two Hour Wargames. As an added bonus, I got Red Sand, Blue Sky for half off. There has been a lot of talk of that game on the yahoo board and I could pass up the 50% off sale!

The only game I played in before heading to sleep was Assault on Vault 51. It’s a fallout scenario using the Mutant’s and Death Rays rule set produced by Ganesha Games. It had a wonderful looking terrain and the game was well thought out and provided a ton of enjoyment. I am going to keep my thoughts and game recap to a minimum since I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who is going to play in it. After the game it was around midnight and since I woke up at 5 am to get to the convention on time, I didn’t feel all that bad for cutting out early.

Some of the beautiful terrain used in the Assault on Vault 51 game!

Spending: $20

Friday – Day 2

I got to the game room a bit early so I had some time to kill. As I was wondering around, a game of Deathrace (based off the Warlands system) was starting and even though I told them I couldn’t stick around for the while race, I jumped in. The rules are quite simple and the game itself was a lot of fun. I was bumped by a car during the first turn and that player managed to do a critical that killed my driver. It turns out with all the crashing and bumping that no car survived to the first ‘curve’. I was killed by my awesome ram in the back of two vehicles (after using nitro of course).

If you look closely, there is a car barely over the start/finish line (way behind yellow), that's me!

Again I was helping run a Warmachine/Hordes tournament. This only was a 2 caster/’lock, 50 point beast/warjack and it was a whole lot of fun to watch. Since we had an odd number of players and the second TO left to hang with his father for a round, I even got to play a Haley/Striker list against a Cryx player. Due to the number of players, the tournament ended a bit early so I spent the remainder of my time wandering about the game hall before my game that night. I picked up a couple of block die from Impact miniatures and some counters from Litko (http://www.litkoaero.com/)

In the evening, I played in an “Adventures in Lost Lands” game (by Two hour wargames) ran by Ed himself. There were 8 players so we split into two groups of 4 (with a bearer apiece). This game was a lot of fun. For some reason, the fates were against my side and we had to deal with a couple of feeder dino’s (which we wounded and sent towards the other group), Trogs (which we handled without any issues), Early Man (who surprised us and kill most of our team’s bearers) and second dino (who turned out to be a meat eater). We managed to kill it, but one of us was wounded in the process.

See the other dino's flee in the wake of KONG!

While trying to skin that dino (to prove their existence), three PEF (that’s possible Enemy force) showed up right on top of us… One of those PEF turned out to be King Kong! I fled when he came “In sight” but the others fled when Kong went after one of our hunters. Of course, we flee towards the other group and after losing one of their hunters, manage to kill Kong (amazing die rolls I might add). I didn’t make it off the table. I was attacked by the other of those PEFs after Kong ran through and we grouped back up. A great game!

Afterwards, I found a group just starting Red Dragon Inn and sat down to play. It was great fun and I even managed to win the game allowing me to have a chance at a prize. I rolled amazing (a 17 on a d20) and got Street Illegal for free.

Spending: $25 (but I knew I was buying Warlands when I came home)

Saturday – Day 3

This day was jammed pack with gaming starting at 8 am and heading straight through until 4pm. First up was “Wings of War” with miniatures. I really enjoyed the game with its simple rules and quick play. Due to an error in scheduling, a second group of people showed up to play at 9am and we all just played a huge 4 on 4 battle. Great fun… I can’t remember the young lady that showed us how to play, but I can tell you that she was a fighting ace taking down at least 4 planes in the short time we played… Even got me on turn two (took 4 damage cards that were enough to destroy my plane).

After that, it was time for some Savage Showdown in the Iron Dynasty campaign setting. The book is not out, but they are hopeful for Gencon. When I signed up, I wasn’t so excited about the setting since it’s ancient Japan with steampunk included, but I couldn’t find any other Savage Worlds non-RPG so I figured I’d take a stab at it. The game was a lot of fun even if my side (with the designer no less) didn’t manage to win. Each team had a clockwork vehicle of some sort, a magician of some sort (a wild card) and a couple of units (some samurai and some ‘shooters’. I was playing the vehicle (which tried to go toe-to-toe with the other vehicle and was destroyed). The system plays great as a skirmish wargame, but the point system can be easily abuse. I figured that I enjoyed the rule changes and the game enough that I’ll probably pick that up in the end.

The two steampunk vehicles command respect (at least their's did).

Final scheduled game for the day was a Battlestations game called Bot Wars ran by one of the designers (Jeff instead of Jason) and it was a hoot. There newest release is a mini-campaign where the bots have gone crazy and are attacking the humans (and the rest technically). We barely managed to survive the game. The only major beef with the convention games is that the returning characters can be a pick strong which really can have a huge impact. Our game was super rough since we had a level 6 pilot that was awesome at flying the ship, but the scenario we played was all about fighting robots. A friend of mine said his game was a mess since they had a level 6 marine who single-handedly fought most of the robot attackers! I’m glad that our game wasn’t that one-sided.

After that, it was back to the dealer’s room to again look about. Due to how much fun I had playing the Lost Lands game, I picked up a bunch of prehistoric models (mostly dinos, but I did pick up some prehistoric men).

Most of Saturday night was a trip to the Sausage house that we always go to. It’s has an all you can eat brat buffet with all the fixings. My only gripe (and it’s minimal at best) is that I eat too much good German food and am a mess for the remainder of the night (it’s also disheartening to leave the convention for ~2 hours, but I wouldn’t miss “Sausage Fest” for anything).

When I got back to the convention, a friend of mine (Justin) bought All Thing Zombie including some Rebel Mini 15mm zombies/survivors. Since we had some free time and didn’t have anything lined up, we put together a little scenario and played through the game. It was a bit rough to remember all the rules and such (it’s one thing to read the rules, it quite another to actually explain and play it). Still, with a lot of page flipping, we got through the game pretty well. Both of us had a Rep 5 survivor (star) and a Rep 4 grunt so things weren’t as bad as they could have been (like lower rep civies). I think we ran into only a couple of minor problems on our trek across the board (to a car park).

Spending: $60

Sunday – day 4

I had a single game lined up due to one getting cancelled. It was another from Ganesha Games called Song of Armies and Hordes. I wasn’t going to play this since I’m not a big fan of large scale battles, but in the end I stuck it out and played in it anyways. In the end, I’m glad I did; using their activation mechanic made famous in their “Song of…” series, it played fast and fun. Honestly, there were just a couple of minor changes to the core mechanic, but really made the game a lot of fun.

The Dwarven and Elves clash!

Afterwards, I went back into the dealer’s room for some last minute buys. I first picked up a copy of Bot Wars complete with autograph! Next, I picked up three boxes of Starship Trooper models (costing 5 dollars a box), a dreadnaught for my ‘space marines’ (I have a couple of squads from Space Hulk) and some of the Iron Kingdoms RPG miniature line (including a bridge troll for use in Blood Bowl). If that wasn’t enough, I bought more dinos and lions for gladiator gaming (when I finish reading the book of course).

Spending: $80

Somewhere in there I played in a Leviathans demo from Catalyst games. It has some really cool ideas to it and I can’t wait to see some of the finished product. I wish I would have taken more pictures of it since my memory is fuzzy on when I actually played it. The system is easy. You pick a weapon that has a color code which coincides with a die type (I’m told that the polyhedron dice are ‘weighted’). To that add any addition dice for ‘crew’ (green die) and a die from the target (its speed & trajectory). With those dice, a final normal d6 is rolled to determine location (much like in Warmachine for the column). Sum the value on the dice and check to see if equals or exceeds the armor value in that space that location is damaged and whatever was ‘there’ is gone. I guess the idea is the hull of the ships are standard, but the ‘slots’ for each ship are going to be customizable. We will see once it gets closer to release on the full rules and the like. If I didn’t have a bunch of other game systems sitting in the house, I’d probably get into it.

Final Thoughts:

Origins Game Fair is always a fun time and if you can make it, I recommend going. Nothing many of the big game companies there, but don’t let that stop you. The dealer’s room has more than enough stuff to keep a gamer like me happy and the games being played are always fun to watch and play! I can’t wait until next year.

Boardgames!

2010-04-29T14:00:00.000-07:00

Of course I made this blog mainly to play miniatures games, but I decided that I could also use it to record other gaming (like board games) that I do. Honestly, I should probably log plays and even session reports on http://www.boardgamegeek.com/ but I rarely actually do that for some odd reason.

So enough explaining the new plan...

Lets talk about some gaming! I found a simple game called The d6 Shooters on BBG a while ago, but never played it much. In the process of cleaning some stuff, I refound it and in a moment of boredom I figured that I play it a couple of times. Simply put The d6 Shooters is a modification of the classic game of yatzee where you roll a number of dice (8 in the case of this game) and have three chances to get the 'best' possible round.

The object of the game is to move an outlaw from one city (Pyrite) to a second (Reno) in 40 days (aka rounds). The key is that the dice are in two colors and three of them can be 'locked' if you roll either a 5 or 6 on the first roll (both those numbers are bad for you). It's a simple game, but quite entertaining! I played three games and the first two were dismal showings (funny that a made it to the city of Thompson and then killed by the outlaw's gang both times).

My third game went a lot better and I actually made it to Reno and won the game with 44 points. I can't tell you if that is a good score, but at least I won. If you have a couple of minutes to kill, 8d6 dice (in two colors), a pen and the score sheet (a single sheet of paper), I completely recommend it!

the d6 shooters

Privateer Press - Leaderboard

2010-04-18T11:03:00.000-07:00

As you might not know, I am a press ganger for Privateer Press (a volunteer that promotes their game and runs events). To that effect the last couple of weeks/months, my gaming time have been used to get things ready on that end.

The first was getting ready for a tournament at the local game store. One of the scenarios requires the use of flags for objectives. I quickly whipped up some (aka 18) for the game!

As you can see, I ran out of time for the actual flags and just had to use white paper with the Privateer Press faction symbols on them. The rest of the flag was quite simple. The base was coated in my 'basing material' (the road crews in my town use sand/dirt for the roads instead of salt. After the snow melts and the sand/dirt dries, I go and get a couple of scoops, sift out the bad stuff and volia - cheap rocks for bases) and spray painted black.

For most of my bases, I start with a basecoat of dark brown, followed by a dry brush of light brown and finally a dry brush of tan. Nothing fancy and it works. The only issue is that I have to do my 'basing' prior to the spray painting the model or it takes a bunch more time. I need to buy some pre-painted basing material for when I get the miniature done prior to the base.

The flag pole is a dowel rod cut to ~2 inch pieces, also sprayed in black primer followed by a brown and then a red/brown ink. All in all, they came out great and I really need to have more objective games so I can use them! :)

The next warmachine/Hordes project was for the Nightfall League. It started a couple of days after the tournament and most of my energy has been going into that (I mean, I'm playing my Trolls two or three times a week). The one thing that needed to be finished for the league was a ladder board. My local game store didn't have one so I took it upon myself to make one. Here is the end result...

The board started as a 2' x 2' one half inch oak board that I had Lowes cut into half. Then, I (and my dad) cut the 0.25 inch slits for the cards to fit into (the slits are 3.5 inches). Finally, I added a 0.5 inch square dowel rod to the top and sides so the board would sit out from the wall. The board was stained twice with a minwax and two miniature hooks were added to allow a piece of paper at the bottom (to show what league is currently going on). I think I am going to tweek a couple of things once the league is finished, but for now, it is a nice little piece that in currently hanging up at the game store.

How am I doing in the league, you ask. As of Friday, I was in second (tied with first in points), but I'm sure that I have fallen off since games were going to happen on Saturday.

35 point Warmachine Army - Color on the metal!

2010-03-06T08:10:00.001-08:00

In an effort to ensure that I meet one of my missions this year, I am planning this early so I can have a lot of time to finish it. Since I have a new army, I figured that I would go with the Retribution for my choice (I really should paint pirates, but I'm scared of the number of solos)!

35 Points:
Ravyn, Eternal Light (*6pts)
* Griffon (4pts)
* Phoenix (10pts)
Dawnguard Invictors (Leader and 9 Grunts) (10pts)
* Dawnguard Invictor Officer & Standard (2pts)
House Shyeel Battle Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Arcanist (1pts)
Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios (3pts)
Ghost Sniper (2pts)
Ghost Sniper (2pts)
House Shyeel Magister (2pts)

First mission is that I'm going to need to purchase two Ghost Sniper models (not really an issue - I need them for the army anyways). Then a paint scheme. I really don't like the official white - that's not true, I don't think I can make te white look cool.. In that end, I'm looking for something different. I really want to do Black/Orange, but I don't think painting-wise I can pull it off.

Saving Private Ryan - the Return!

2010-02-02T01:02:00.000-08:00

The heroes make their way back to Death’s Hill with the evil statue (smaller now due to the loss of Flashfire).

The first two turns go without much incident. The statue creates a guard on each turn and the heroes move up slowly (The three slow moving models are now in a group and are being ‘commanded’ by Jareth).

On the third turn, the statue fails to create a guard even with a hero reroll. Most of the heroes again move forward, but Xaria casts a 3 power transfix which does nothing and Erdan shoots, but does nothing.

On the fourth turn, the statue creates a guard, but uses the final hero reroll in the process. Xaria casts a magical bolt and Erdan shoots, but again nothing happens.

See what strategy can do for the game - Go Leaders!

On the fifth turn, the statue makes a fourth guard. The slow-moving group has finally made it to the edge of the hilltop. Xaria again tries to transfix and Erdan tries to shoot a guard to no effect (I’m seeing a pattern here).

The sixth turn happens with the statue creating a guard and Jareth failing 2 dice on his activation ending the turn. Thankfully, the seventh turn, the statue does nothing. Pip, Selena and Durgon move onto the hilltop and Xaria fails to cast a spell and the momentum shifts (she failed 2 activation dice).

The eight turn sees the first hero death as Pip falls to his aggressor (the classic 1 against a 6 - 3+1 v 3+6). The statue transfixes Selena. Durgon kills the fallen guard (that Selena knocked down) and Selena shakes off the transfix effect, but little else happens (Xaria casts a low powered bolt, but the guard is unaffected – and ends the turn in the process).

The ninth turn has a guard knock down Selena, but no other guards manage to exploit the opening (I thankfully rolled a lot of ones for the guards) and the statue fails to do anything. Selena stands up while Xaria fails to transfix the nearest guard. Durgon and Erdan climb to the top of the hilltop.

If I lose one more model, I'll have to take a morale check.

Turn 10: Selena is powerfully attacked and is killed (with a second guard in contact and the powerfully attack, it was 0 to 3 in favor of the guard). The guard to attack Durgon rolls snake eyes and the turn ends there for the statue. Durgon kills the guard in combat with him with a powerful attack.

Turn 11: Durgon is attacked twice, but is pushed back and then pushes his second attacker back. The statue tries and fails to entangle Erdan. All heroes are now on the hilltop.

Turn 12: The first guard moves but can’t attack Durgon. The second guard powerfully attacks Durgon, but is knocked down in the process. The Statue fails to make a guard.

If we can get rid of these two guards, we might have a chance!

Erdan kills the fallen guard, but fails to make his terror check and can’t move into melee with the statue (he moves to help Durgon with the last guard instead). Xaria casts a powerful transfix spell at the statue and even with its magic resistance, it fails the roll and is transfixed! Jareth makes his move and attacks the transfixed statue with a powerful attack but fails to destroy the mighty statue. Durgon knocks down the final guard.

Turn 13: The guard stands but does nothing else while the statue remains transfixed. Erdan knocks down the guard again and this time can move into melee with the statue. Durgon kills the final guard and moves into melee with the statue. Jareth again tries to defeat the statue, but fails.

Turn 14: The statue fails to recover from the spell and Durgon destroys the statue with a powerfully attacks (6+3 v 5+3).

Injuries:
Pip: Serious Injury
Selena: Full recovery

I get 30 gold for winning the scenario! However, the scenario states that I should get 20xp for destroying the statue and 4xp per guard. In the base campaign rules, that would be 40xp. If you include the 8 guards I killed in the first game (can’t believe that I killed that many guards), I should have about 72xp or 144 points to buy characters with – almost three times what I can do with my current funds.

So, to update this scenario to the campaign rules in Song of Deeds and Glory (if I may be so bold), I’m going to state that killing the statue is worth an extra 1d6x5 gold coins and each guard killed is worth a single gold (perhaps there were some precious gems used in the rituals)... With my dice rolls, that’s an extra 30 gold for the second game (If you think about it, my average with 5 guards killed would be (~57.5 gold and a campaign point, close to the purchase power of 40xp). If you add the 8 gold from the guards killed in my first time, I have a total of 83 gold.

In searching the surrounding lands, we stumbled upon an old alehouse which we manage to cut a deal with the proprietor and will always have a stock of ale if we need it. Durgon all shook up about the loss of Flashfire and injured forgot about the ale we found, but decides to learn the trade from the current brewmaster and is making some pretty good ale (added the special Brewmaster to Durgon).

With my stash of gold I recruit a human warrior (Q3+ C3) for 30 gold and a human barbarian (Q3+ C3 – Fearless, Giant Slayer) for 42 gold which leaves me with 11 gold. With the campaign point, I purchase “Retaining the Initiative”.

The experience: This scenario is still fun and worth a second go. First of all, I rolled a lot better this time. There weren’t as many turnovers as in the first game and I think that was in part me remembering to use a group move for the slower lower quality characters. I had to take a chance with my heroes when I first went on the hill and I paid the price really early. Losing two characters so quickly made me pretty worried about the ending (lethal against personalities is scary, but really makes this scenario shine). With only 4 members left another death would have been a morale check and we saw what that could do. In the end, casting a transfix spell on the statue was what really won the day.

Song of Saving Private Ryan - Game 1

2010-01-31T02:43:00.000-08:00

I located a four scenario campaign called Song of Saving Private Ryan by Aleksandar Saranac for the Song of Blades and Heroes rule set. It turns out that it is to be played solo (the rules have how the enemy warband is to be played). I decided to go ahead and try the first scenario since I hadn’t heard of anyone trying the games from the yahoo group. To that end, I worked a new warband using my knowledge of a couple games and my idea to play them in the new campaign system (found in Song of Deeds and Glory). Before I pass judgment on the campaign rules, I wanted to try them out a couple of times.

You know things aren't going to end well when you can roll a die cocked without anything in the way!

Here are the new Saviors of the Savage Lands:

Jareth - Personality (60)
Quality 3+, Combat 3
Special Rules: Leader

Xaria - Personality (38)
Quality 4+, Combat 2
Special Rules: Magic-User

Erdan (50)
Quality 3+, Combat 3
Special Rules: Forester, Shooter: Long

Flashfire (56)
Quality 4+, Combat 3
Special Rules: Animal, Blast, Flying

Durgon (50)
Quality 3+, Combat 4
Special Rules: Fearless, Heavy Armor, Short Move

Pip (23)
Quality 4+, Combat 2
Special Rules: Free Disengage, Shooter: Short, Short Move, Stealth

Selena (23)
Quality 4+, Combat 3
Special Rules: Free Disengage, Short Move

Warband changes: The first major change is the addition of a seventh member. Due to the fact that in the campaign rules your starting number of models determines the maximum number allowed, I wanted to add an extra character. I’ve also noticed that a ‘horde’ of models is not necessarily a bad thing either when trying to gang up on someone. This allows me to have 14 models if I ever get that big. Of course that means that Erdan had to lose a point of combat and Pip lost both a combat and a quality to make room. The biggest change is to Flashfire having to rework the specials and combat around to get a better quality. It remains to be seen if Blast is worth the points.

Changes to the scenario one: I couldn’t find anything to use as the flat hilltop that was suitable so I changed the hilltop to be 12x12 inch (30x30 cm). This allowed me to use a piece of cork laying about the basement. Other than that, I went ahead and played the scenario as written.

One thing I noticed is that I have very little in terms of ‘trash’ terrain: rubble, boulders, hedges, trees and the like. Perhaps that should be my winter month mission since it is barely 60 degrees in the basement at the moment.

Turn 1: The Statue rolls two successes and creates a skeletal guard. All is looking good until Flashfire fails 2 activation dice and the two Halflings don’t get to go!

Turn 2: Statue creates a second guard. Both guard hold position. The uphill climb is taking its toll on the heroes, especially those with short moves! Flashfire (not surprisingly) rolls three ones for activation and stays put.

Turn 3: Statue fails to create a guard (failing on the reroll as well). Erdan aims and fires at a Guard with no effect (1+2 v 2+3), Durgon moves slowly up and Pip fails to activate enough to move (passes the turn in the process).

Turn 4: Statue creates a third guard and all guards hold position. Jareth fails to activate on snake eyes!

The two halflings are lagging behing the rest of the group

Turn 5: Statue creates a fourth guard. Selena fails to active enough to move which causes a turnover.

Turn 6: Statue creates a fifth guard (using its last hero reroll). All heroes move closer except for Erdan (turnover on Xaria’s turn).

Turn 7: Statue gets two successes and creates a sixth guard. There are heroes within a long band of it so there is a chance that it will try to entangle if it gets three successes on its activation. Erdan aims and fires at a Guard but again with no effect (1+3 v 2+6). Xaria casts a magical bolt at a guard (1+2 v 3+2), but the guard shrugs off the attack. Durgon finally makes on the hilltop and Flashfire blasts into two guards with no damage (3+4 v 3+5 v 3+6). Pip moves closer, but Selena stays put.

Turn 8: Two guards move and attack Flashfire and both are knocked down for their trouble (3+4 v 3+2 and 2+6 v 3+4), but the third guard manages to kill Flashfire (1+3 v 3+5). A guard moves to attack Durgon, but is pushed back (4+5 v 3+5). The statue has nothing within entangle range so creates another guard! Erdan moves into melee with a fallen guard causing a gruesome kill (5+6 v 2+1), but all the undead are a high enough quality that all morale checks automatically pass... Durgon pushes his opponent back with a powerful attack (4+5 v 2+4). Xaria casts a magical bolt at the other fallen guard but doesn’t kill it (0+5 v 3+3).

Durgon is managing to keep alive with overwealming odds. How long can it last?

Turn 9: The fallen guard stands and moves into melee with Erdan. A guard moves and attacks Durgon but is knocked down (4+6 v 3+5). A second guard moves in and attacks (3+ 3 v 3+3 ), followed by a third guard who attacks (2+2 v 3+3) and pushes Durgon back! Durgon moves back into melee and kills the fallen guard (6+ 3 v 3+5). Erdan gets pushed back from his attack on a guard (3+2 v 2+5). Xaria tries to transfix one of the guards, but it manages to shrug off the spell (3 powered spell, but no 1s rolled).

Turn 10: Durgon is attacked by a guard (4+3 v 3+2) and pushes it back. A second guard attacks but both are evenly matched (4+1 v 3+2) followed by a third guard that attacks (3+3 v 3+4), but his heavy armor saves him! The statue fails to do anything. Durgon gets a single success (out of three mind you) and does nothing. The turn passes.

Turn 11: Both guards powerfully attack Durgon, but nothing happens (2+6 v 3+5 and 2+5 v 3+4) and the statue still does nothing. Xaria transfixes a guard (another 3 point spell that a guard fails), but Erdan fails to kill it (5+1 v 2+6). Durgon kills one of the guards attacking him (3+5 v 2+2). Both Pip and Selena move closer to the action and Selena tries a shot, but it is highly ineffective (-2+4 v 3+6).

Turn 12: The transfixed guard can’t shake off the effects, but a guard finally manages to kill Durgon (3+1 v 3+6). The statue finally creates a new guard. Erdan again tries to kill the transfixed guard but fails again (5+2 v 2+5). Xaria tries to transfix another guard, but moves a bit forward instead (the turn switches however).

Turn 13: The transfixed guard shakes off the effect and the statue creates a new guard. Erdan pushes the warrior back (3+5 v 3+3) and Xaria casts a low power transfix spell, it manages to work on a guard (rolled a single power spell and it works, but at the cost of the turn).

Turn 14: A guard moves and attacks Erdan, but is killed in the process (3+6 v 3+1), but another guard takes his place. The transfixed guard is still transfixed, but the statue finally can cast a entangle spell powerful enough to hit Erdan who fails the check!

The heroes are slowly losing their numbers and their foothold on the hilltop.

Erdan easily shakes off the effect, but does little else. Xaria casts a powerful transfix spell, but the guard resists. Pip finally makes it to the battle and attacks the transfix model, but can’t strike true (5+3 v 3+6). Selena moves up, but she and Jareth do nothing.

Turn 15: In a lucky break (hopefully), the transfixed guard rolls snake eyes ending their turn early! Pip powerfully attacks the transfixed guard killing it (5+4 v 2+4). Erdan also kills a guard with a powerful attack (3+4 v 2+1). Xaria tries a low powered transfix, but fails.

Turn 16: A guard moves and pushes Erdan back (3+4 v 3+5), but the guard that attacked Pip does nothing (3+2 v 3+2). Xaria again transfixes a guard, but Erdan fails to kill it (5+1 v 3+4). Pip knocks down the guard in front of him (3+4 v 2+2) and Jareth moves on the platform killing it due in part of Pip’s ‘distractions’ (5+3 v 2+5)!

Turn 17: The first guard shakes the transfix spell and the second guard moves into melee with Jareth while the statue makes another guard. Erdan attacks, pushing back his foe (3+5 v 1+5) and moves to aid Jareth. Selena fails to activate and causes a turnover (this could be the end)!

Turn 18: The guard attacks Jareth, but is pushed back (2+5 v 2+2). Erdan is pushed back by the other guard (2+4 v 3+5) and the third guard knocks him down (3+5 v 3+6). The statue makes a fourth guard. Erdan stands up and powerfully forces a guard down (3+2 v 2+2). The turn ends with Selena (rolled double 1s).

Turn 19: The guard moves into contact and attacks Erdan but is repelled (2+5 v 3+2). Selena is attacked but strikes her foe down (2+6 v 3+3). The fourth guard moves to an open position against Erdan and knocks him down (2+4 v 3+4). The statue entangles Selena. Erdan gets up, but does nothing else. Selena breaks free of the entangle spell, but gets knocked down by her foe (4+4 v 3+6). Jareth moves against the fallen guard and kills it (5+3 v 2+1). Pip moves to protect Selena and manages to beat back a guard in the process (3+3 v 2+3).

Turn 20: Erdan holds his own against a guard (3+3 v 3+3) and Pip knocked down the first guard, but get knocked down himself by the second guard (3+4 v 3+3 and 2+5 v 3+6). The statue doesn’t do anything. Erdan and the guard exchange blows (3+5 v 2+6) while Pip just gets up (the momentum shifts).

Turn 21 (whew): The fallen guard arises and Pip is gruesomely killed by the other (1+1 v 3+5). Most of the warband flee (Xaria's at the edge of the board). Thankfully, that is not 50% of the warband yet. Erdan is pushed back by the guard (3+2 v 3+5) and the statue does nothing. Erdan moves back and attacks (3+5 v 2+4) pushing the guard back. Xaria moves closer, but the momentum shifts (again).

Turn 22: Erdan is attacked by all three guards. The first moves and is knocked down (3+2 v 3+1), the second is also knocked down (2v6 v 3+3) and the third is pushed back (1+5 v 3+1). Erdan attacks but doesn’t kill a guard (4+1 v 2+5). Xaria inches closer, but again the game shifts.

Turn 23: Erdan is knocked down (2+5 v 3+6) by the first guard and is gruesomely killed by the third guard (1+4 v 5+5). The two resulting morale checks have the remaining heroes flee off the board.

Injuries:
Durgon: Moderate Injury
Erdan: Full Recovery
Flashfire: Dead
Pip: Full Recovery

I manage to find 15 gold. At least all remaining characters gain an experience point. I also explore the countryside about Death’s Hill (and it is now being referred to) and find a lone keg (Durgon is quite happy).

The experience: I really liked this scenario. It was quite fun and was really tense throughout the game. I’m amazed at how many turnovers I had. I know that I should expect a couple throughout the game, but there were a couple times that it was just crazy! When most of my warband fled, I should have had Erdan also move back, but I was really getting tired since in the end, him being unsupported killed him (gruesomely I might add). Thankfully a gruesome kill doesn’t automatically kill a character in the campaign or I’d be done for (or if it does, I can’t find it).

2009 Year in review - thoughts for 2010?

2010-01-15T16:08:00.000-08:00

I really didn't want to put a 'year in review' in my gaming blog since it seems so cliche. But then again, perhaps it will spark me to get off my butt and get moving on more gaming.

My plan for 2009 was to play two games a month for a total of 24 games. I logged only 10 actual games over 17 messages. It seems like I am way off and that I don't play very many games (which is true), but these numbers don't include all of my Warmachine/Hordes that I played on Thursdays or the Bloodbowl league that started last year (3 wins, 0 losses). Except for a few miniatures, I really didn't paint anything either.

Enough excuses... The simple truth is that I need to formulate a plan and stick to it.

So the 2010 plan
I think I can get to the two games a month so I will try to make my goal be 24 games. Also, I am going to look into getting a couple of genre finished so I can play games in those.

Mission 1: I am starting to get everything I need to play post-modern and modern horror (aka zombies). That means a lot of miniatures to assemble and paint. Honestly I have about 50 zombies that need to be put together and a handful of modern hunters that need some paint. Should be easy!

Mission 2: Space fleets - I have a lot of spaceships about, but I don't have anything really complete. My mission here is to go through the two GZG fleets that I have and redo them (possiblity with a new paint scheme). Then work through fleets of about 1000 - 2000 points in the different iconic Sci-Fi films about for Starmada. I had a lot of fun running the Starmada games at Origins and want to do that again.

Mission 3: Terrain - I have a collection of half finished terrain projects in the collection and I really want to get those done. When I didn't have space or the need, it was different, but I'd like to clean up that part of the basement and finish some terrain

Mission 4: Painting - I have a lot of miniatures that aren't painted. I'm not looking to complete the whole list, but perhaps I should get to painting some of my Warmachine/Hordes stuff. As well as the other things I've bought along the way.

Mission 5: Use or lose - I need to go through my collection of miniatures and clear out stuff that I'm not going to need or play. I have a lot of micro armor still in the boxes that I need to paint or get rid of (perhaps both). I also have a some 15mm stuff that needs to go.

Okay, that's it for now...

Crown of Kings - Part 3

2009-12-09T21:26:00.000-08:00

Not to be outdone by this module, I started the game at the same place after the total party kill of last time. I got a couple of replies from the Dark City Games forum and it looks like I have a new plan for GM bennies. Of course, after a bit of time at the SW forum, I decided that I would try round 3 if the following GM Bennies rule in place (thanks to Marc for his input):

A GM WC will receive 2 bennies as per the normal rules and will use them in the following instances:

1. Use as a soak roll whenever it receives 2 or more wounds.
2. Remove a shaken result if they are in melee and failed their Spirit roll.

If a GM WC does use a benny (not always possible as you can see), the character that caused the WC to use a benny will receive one.

There is talk about giving out a benny after every combat, but I haven’t felt that is necessary yet so I will hold off on that house rule unless I feel that I need it later.

I couldn’t tell you if it was better die rolling or the above rules, but I managed to kill the dragon without any real issues. A couple bennies are spent, but all characters are alive and well. It only took 5 turns to kill the dragon!

Turn 1: Dragon moves in and breathes fire on Marcus and Merula. Merula manages to move out of the way, but Marcus is stunned (shaken). Marcus fails to recover (must be patting out all those flames), but Merula casts deflection on Janine (spending a benny since she rolled a critical failure).

Turn 2: Dragon goes first again hitting Marcus for 2 wounds, but he soaks one. Nothing else really happens.

Turn 3: Janine does a wild attack to the head and manages to wound the dragon, but it was only one and due to the new rules, the dragon does try to soak it. Ramel heals Marcus (and could have healed 4 wounds).

Turn 4: Marcus failed to recover, but spends a benny; Causing a single wound by attacking the head. The dragon continues to not use its bennies. Dragon can only recover from shaken. Janine does another wild attack to the head and hits for a wound again. Now the dragon has 3 wounds, but hasn’t spent a single benny.

Turn 5: Marcus goes first and hits the dragon causing a fourth wound killing it!

It is odd to have the creature die without using any of its bennies. Especially on the last one when ‘it’ knows it will be killed! Had there been a rule that talks about the final blow, the dragon would have failed the soak roll on the first benny spent, but the second one were had worked to avoid the killing stroke. Of course, that gives Marcus 2 bennies (which puts him back at 3). I’m not sure if I like the way that felt, but for now, I’m going to take the win!

Now to the rest of this module…

Okay, I lied; due to the overwhelming success from before, I was curious if I was just having a good day or if it was something else. I decided to play the scenario one more time.

I did have an issue on the first turn; Marcus hits for 2 wounds on the dragon (he got a joker) and the soak roll didn’t stop any wounds. With the above rule, should the WC NPC try again? My thought is no since it doesn’t “exactly” know if that will be the ‘worst’ attack… but this brings the dragon to 3 wounds and could make the battle really quick! I decided to use the second bennies for the soak roll and it healed one wound. The dragon with two wounds, just recovers from shaken. The second turn starts with Janine hitting the dragon for a wound. The dragon now with 3 wounds can barely recover from shaken. Marcus attacks causes a wound and the dragon is unconscious, but the heroes quickly dispatch it.

Yep, two rounds of combat; with Marcus getting a joker on the first turn and all attacks being a wild swing to the head (at least +0 with no other modifiers, both were higher than that), the dragon went down unexpectedly quickly (not a single benny spent).

I decided to go ahead and finish the module and overall it was a lot of fun. If I remember correctly, this module was online for free before they decided to make these available in print and is probably one of the first. Their style, writing and game flow as gotten much better over the years so I’m a bit disappointed that this was there first conversion. Be warned, there are a couple of conversion issues, but nothing that can’t be solved with a little common sense. Well worth the money if you got the time for a solo game. Hopefully Dark City Games will be pursuing this crossover in the future.

2009-11-29T02:17:00.000-08:00

October 7, 986 – Outskirts of Altengard

The alpha creature sniffed the air a second time sure now that there was food to be had at this small dwelling. Not only from within, but there were many large horses about. The real question was, how much blood would be on his massive axe when it was all said and done…

1 Alpha Lycan (Star) - REP 6, AC 4, Move 16, Hardiness 4; Weapon: Massive Axe
Terror, Magic Resist
Massive Axe: IMP 7
CV: 10

2 Brotherhood Lycan - REP 5, AC 4, Move 12, Hardiness 2; Weapon: Arm Blade
Arm blade: IMP 5
Frenzy, Magic Resist
CV: 6

3 Pack Lycan - REP 5, AC 4, Move 12, Hardiness 0; Weapon: Spear
Spear: IMP 5
Frenzy
CV: 2

Total CV: 28

Raid Encounter roll was an 8 so there are 28 CV of locals about. Since this was an inn, I decided that if I rolled doubles, the type would be: Drunk (CV: 1) – REP 3, AC 2, Move 8, Hardiness 0; Weapon: Improvised Weapon (IMP 3). There are no other buildings in the area, but there are four horses found in the corral on the opposite side of the road.

4 Knights, 2 Skirmishers, 6 Infantry (2 inside), 5 Arquebus (2 inside), 4 Drunks (2 inside), 3 Polearms (1 inside)

Here is the setup for the raid. You can barely see the alpha and his pack on the right. The two brotherhood are on the far left.

Stats for the other combatants are in the following format:
Name (REP/AC/move/Hardiness/RNG:IMP)

Knight (5/6/12/0/-:7 or 4)
Skirmishers (4/2/8/0/36:5)
Infantry (4/4/6/0/-:5)
Arquebus (4/3/6/0/24:7)
Polearm (4/3/6/0/-:6)

The defenders are set up in a random fashion. I split the board into 6 areas and I rolled a d6 for each figure. Once the location was determined, I placed them in a spot that I figured would be if they were on patrol. Funny how of the 24 figures only 7 are inside the inn. Word about the Lycans has spread and perhaps this raid is more of a trap???

As the Pack moves closer to the Inn, it appears that the humans are waiting for them. Hopefully how the human are spread out will help them keep their injuries to a minimum.

The alpha moves his group of pack lycans into melee. The human stand their ground in the test of wills (I knew I should have used the star ability and picked 6 successes instead of 4) and the lycans all charge. The arquebuser doesn’t manage to do anything with his shot, but the skirmisher manages to take a lycan OOF with a well-placed arrow! Both Knights hold their own even though they are outclassed. The poor drunk is sliced through without a care by the pack lycan and one of the knights retires a normal move on the crisis test! The Brotherhood lycans are unable to go due to the activation number.

The same skirmisher manages to take out another pack Lycan OOF. The arquebuser manages to hit the alpha, but the alpha shrugs off the blow, roars and moves to engage (with 3d vs 6d rolls well enough to hit, but then just forces a control test which the star ‘fails’ and engages in melee). The knight wants to charge in, but can’t manage to force himself to do it (the alpha star picks ‘6 successes’ and the knight can’t hope to beat him). The rest of the humans move to create groups in order to fight better (or fail to charge the final pack lycan.

The lone skirmisher on the right is taking out the pack lycans without worry...

The alpha cleaves the arquebuser in half and the skirmisher ‘hero’ routs off the board. A second knight races over to help take out the final pack lycan and after a couple of minor successes manages to run him through (OD result). The rest of the humans stand in wait (I rolled a 6 for the lycans again and a 5 for the humans).

The alpha lycan moves to attack Lord Byron (the leader of this group) but they are evenly matched. The brotherhood lycans finally move into the battle, one charging an arquebuser who fails to hurt him as the lycan comes crashing close. The arquebusers screams of pain force a second arquebuser and a polearm fighter to flee in terror (both failed the crisis test). The second brotherhood lycan attempts to charge the last skirmisher, but halts in place instead (same number of successes on test of wills). The final skirmisher wastes no time in firing at the dumbfounded lycan hitting the foul beast and seriously wounding it (Since they are now within 12 inches, there isn’t a second test of wills so the skirmisher fires her short bow at the lycan rolling 3 successes to 2 hitting it. The result of OOF stands after rolling on the hardiness check)! The alpha seeing that he is outnumbered, fails the crisis test and retires (there are now only 2 lycans remaining).

How the tables have turned for the lycan. Who knew bows are the way to go!

The alpha retires off the board, but the brotherhood lycan doesn’t get the message. The skirmisher rounds the forest looking to take a shot, but misses and the lycan charges in. The second shot manages to hit, but doesn’t faze the lycan who rends the skirmisher in two which causes the nearest swordsman to flee (and a second to retire). The two knights on the flank dispatch both wounded pack lycans. The final lycan grabs his other brotherhood lycan buddy and flees off the table.

The encounter wasn’t a total loss muses the alpha after a couple of days. Sure the pack is smaller, but the two that survived are more powerful then when they started. Perhaps next time they will dine on horse flesh…

The alpha gained a Social status that it lost by fleeing the battlefield. One Brotherhood went up in REP and both went to hardiness 3.

Savage Worlds - Crown of Kings Round 2

2009-11-06T00:59:00.000-08:00

Okay, after mulling over my “defeat” by the dragon in the last episode, I decided to do some research on Savage World combats. Thankfully, right on their website in the download section gives a one page survival guide to SW combat. After downloading, printing and reading, I wanted to face this dragon again with a couple of changes of strategy. Also, I wanted to count the number of rounds and see the time it took. Remember this is supposed to be a RPG game and a two-hour battle would try me as a gamer!

Here is my setup for the game. The map is under a piece of plexiglass so I can use a wet erase marker to take notes. Notice all the game counters included with the game.

Started @ 2:14
Ended @ 3:07

Result: total party death in 11 turns…. How it happened:

Turn 1: Dragon is shaken by a great attack by Marcus, but it recovers quickly and causes a wound on Marcus after a soak roll. Merula casts deflection on Janine and Janine moves in and attacks the head (called shot), but fails to cause any damage

Turn 2: Dragon gets a joker and hits Marcus for 4 wounds and he begins to bleed out. Ramel fails to heal Marcus.

Turn 3: Marcus dies (a roll of 2 – 3 = death). Ramel intimidates the dragon with a success?!? Dragon recovers and hits Ramel but rolls a 6 for no result

Turn 4: Dragon again hits Ramel but only shakes him. Janine wild attacks to the head (the modifiers are in her favor; +1 for gang up, +1 for trademark weapon, +2 for wild attack and +2 for dragon’s size with the –4 for a called shot) and connects with a 27 (3 wounds). Of course, if the dragon gets the two GM Bennies, it uses one to soak. An awesome roll of 17 completely negates the damage.

Turn 6: Ramel hit for 3 wounds and is unable to soak them.

Turn 8: Janine hit for 5 wounds and soaks 1. On the Incapacation Table, she scores a raise meaning she is stunned, but is busted (die type loss to strength).

Turn 10: Janine hit for 5 more wounds and starts to bleed out. Ramel tries to flee combat, but is hit for 2 wounds. He also starts to bleeds.

Turn 11: Janine continues to bleed out; Ramel expires. Dragon hits Merula for 1 wound (she soaks 2), then two more wounds on the second attack. She Full defenses and tries to run, but gets hit while fleeing and receives another wound going unconscious…

Now I’m curious if my “new” play style is the cause of death or the awesome rolling/cards for the dragon at the beginning of the combat. I’m feeling that my tactics were sound, but the awesome cards that the dragon got was what did me in. Also, the two GM Bennies that I gave the dragon saved it when Janine did her wild attacks to the head. I sent a message to the Dark City guys to see if I’m suppose to be giving GM Bennies out, but I haven’t got an answer yet. Again, I’ll “reset the power button” and go at this again…

Savage Worlds - Crown of Kings

2009-10-30T22:46:00.000-07:00

The Crown of Kings is an adventure module produced by Dark City Games. Constructed as a sort of “choose your own adventure” game that can be played solo. Recently, they have started to convert some of their modules for Savage Worlds. Now, I purchased this “Savaged” adventure a long while ago, but due to the amount of time the free trial module took to play, I was leery of playing through this adventure. Don’t get me wrong I love the stuff that Dark City Games produces, but as a scripted solo game you don’t get many replays once you have completed the ‘entire’ module. Trust me, in playing their games, there are times that you really need to go back to a ‘save point’ and start again. I can’t tell you the number of times playing through their system (an offshoot of melee/wizard) that I’ve been killed by the die rolls!

Of course, I picked up the Savage Worlds Fantasy Companion so after reading I really wanted to use my now two (err… three) savage world books. I’m a big fan of the Savage Worlds game rules so any time I can get a chance to play, I’m all for it! My new spark for playing this game is that I’ve been reading a great web comic called Clockworks that is based on a RPG using the Savage Worlds rules. So, I got everything ready to play and waited for a couple hours free time to have at it…

Since it is a scripted adventure, I don’t want to spoil too much of the game, but since you get monster counters in the game, I feel like I can give some highlights…

It was all going pretty well until I met a dragon! Unfortunately, the module doesn’t give any rules on Game Master Bennies (or if you should even get any). I ruled that the module itself doesn’t get any GM Bennies, but Wild Card (WC) creatures would. I also ruled that the WC creatures would use their Bennies only for wound soak rolls. Also, critical failures by wild cards would result in a shaken result. In the end, I might have made the dragon harder than the writers’ intended. With the creature rolling d12+4 and d8 for damage, my characters were in a world of hurt if they got hit. Once the Bennies were all gone, characters starting to take wounds. On my end it was easy to hit the dragon, but with a toughness of 15 I really needed to hit with a raise and roll pretty well on my damage roll. In the end, Ramel was killed (got 4 wounds and with two bad vigor rolls died).

Fights with a WC with a high toughness also take a lot of time at least it did for me. I didn’t count the number of rounds that I was fighting and I admit that I had to look up the rules a lot, but it still took me 2 hours to fight the dragon!

I’m pretty sure that this was one of the major fights of the module, but I’m not sure that I’ll be able to make it through the rest of the adventure with only 3 characters - all of who are out of Bennies or Power Points.

To Be Continued (with pictures hopefully)...

The Velikimrav Nest

2009-09-19T23:45:00.000-07:00

October 15, 986 Outskirts of Altengard

Even though Mattis gave Randell some ideas on how to locate a velikimrav nest, Randell hadn’t had any luck actually locating one. Of course, with the rarity of said velikimrav nests, he wasn’t discouraged. Hopefully with a little luck, one would be found before too much time had passed. With the Lycans still at large, time was precious…

Game Notes: "Quest: Is it here?" Result: 4 – Not in the area. Roll for an encounter normally. Result: No encounter

November 2, 986

After weeks of searching, Randell has finally found the signs of a velikimrav nest. He and his current band venture into the cramped tunnels below the earth. The ground gapes open to reveal a fairly large chamber with a single exit. After a quick look about, the party heads deeper into the lair. Moving off into the side passage, the party heads down a very large passageway that ends in a right turn (T1: 2/4). Due to the difficult terrain, it takes them a bit to move down the corridor (T2: 6/3, T3: 2/4). So far, there hasn’t been any sign of occupants.

In a second long corridor, a section of the floor gives way under Andus, a swordsmen. He falls hurting himself very badly (in the second corridor, there was a level 5 trap. The trap randomly attacked a party member, which was a swordman. The trap rolled 5d and the swordsmen rolled 4d. The trap got 4 successes to the swordsman 2. On the firing table, it was determined that he was OOF). After getting Andus out of the collapsed tunnel, Randell orders the party to continue. He can’t turn back now; too much time has been lost in search of this nest.

Continuing down that same corridor (T4: 5/2), the lone passageway continues as it weaves under the ground (T5: 4/1). As the party turns the corner and sees a end to this passageway, a part of the ceiling gives way and Daniel jumps out of the way barely escaping from harm (Again there was a level 5 trap. It randomly attacks a different swordsman, but the trap scored no successes and the swordsman scored 1 stating the target was unharmed and the trap disarmed) – Of course, since there is no humanoid enemies in this dungeon, I continue to make the traps more accidents).

Entering a very cramped chamber (T6: 1/3), Randell and the party discovers some velikimrav sulking about. Blades are drawn with the hope of eggs (Two of the 3 PEFs were to be resolved in this room. The first PEF was nothing, but the second was considered the main body. A roll determined there would be 1.5 times more than the party. Since the only thing to be found in this nest was velikimrav, I kept adding them until the maximum CV was reached. In this case, there were going to be 4 in the room. To determine if there were any eggs in the chamber, I rolled on the Loot and Booty chart modifying as follows. Roll 2d6, for every point over 7, one nest containing eggs were to be present. The roll was a 4 so no eggs were in the chamber).

Game Notes: The room is only 2w in area (1.5 x 3 inches – I modified it to be 2x4”)! I continued to map the passageway so the velikimrav would have enough room to be deployed (yes, with the passageways all at 3w, they are considerably larger than that of the chambers). To make things easier on my self, I changed the 3w passageways to 4” which allows me to use some stuff I got laying about for the rooms and passageways!

4 Velikimrav, but no eggs to be found. At least not in this part of the cavern!

Randell and the party see the velikimrav and with a battle cry, charge blandishing their weapons. The velikimrav that is charged by Randell senses the magic sword and rout! Seeing one of their kind retire, two others also leave leaving a single enemy (The test of wills has the party pass 3 more successes and then the velikimrav only get a single success in the charge test – due to Randell being a star, he picks 4 so the party charges and that velikimrav routs. Due to the rout, two more also flee). Randell and the creature battle each other, but it’s obvious that the Randell is out matched and is wounded and OOF (Randell gets only 4 dice against the velikimrav who gets 6 dice – 4 for REP, 1 due to protected and another 1 for larger base. After a couple of pushes back and forth, the velikimrav scores 2 more success than Randell. The following hardiness test has Randell passing 1D causes him to lose his last two dice putting him OOF). Two of the swordsmen see Randell downed by the creature and retire from the nest, but the lone arquebusier runs out of the cave screaming!

(T6a:5/2): Tealwood grabs Randell’s body and attempts to get out of this nest with their lives while having Daniel pickup Andus. The velikimrav charges Tealwood and wounds him twice in a row putting him OOF. The rest of the party flees the cave once Tealwood is downed!

Tealwood attempts to pull Randell from harm to no avail! The velikimrav win this day!

Randell wakes up on the cold ground of the cave. Surprised to be alive, he looks over and notices Tealwood close by. It looks like the velikimrav are nowhere to be found. Randell quickly wakes up Tealwood, grab their dropped gear and they stagger back to the Compess. Perhaps I need a bigger party before I head into the second nest thought Randell has he recovers his wounds. The days drawn on, but soon the entire party is back on their feet (some of the party is worse off, but there is nothing one can do about that). They have lost precious time since they had to journey back to Compess. Once it all said and done, seven days pass before they are well enough to head back out on their quest to destroy the Lycan.

Game Notes: Both Randell and Tealwood survive their OOF result without any issues, but one of the swordsmen (the one I called Andus) and the arquebusier (now called Tobus) lost a point of REP. Between encounters, a number of days pass equal to the roll on 4d6 (so on average two weeks pass per encounter). This is a change of the rules, but I have my reasons. Since my star went OOF, it adds recovery time to the roll for time between encounters depending on the amount of ‘care’ that can be provided. Compess is a town and it takes an additional 2d6 for recovery (cities are 1d6 and wilderness is 3d6).

Randell's Quest 2 - Dangerous Dealings?

2009-09-12T02:08:00.000-07:00

This is a continuation of the previous game that I ran. I decided that it would be fun to continue the tale of Randell so I started thinking about how to play this out. It occurred to me that I could take some elements from the other THW games and make this into a little mini campaign of sorts. Besides I have the rules in my head. Why clutter things up!

"I need more men!” stated Mr. Randell staring at the commander of the small outpost near the Timmerland Estate. He and the men that he had taken with him had recovered their wounds nicely under the direction of the staff here, but he couldn't get the commander to budge on even a single conscript.

"I've heard the tales of the Lycan issue, but we just can't spare any of our defenses. All our resources are currently protecting the towns and roads in the area. We just can't send any more people with you, but you can continue to use the services of Captain Tealwood. He's the best we got! I'm sorry, but you will just have to find a different way."

Randell stormed out without any words. Words were pointless and would not help clean the infection in his lands. Simply put, the Lycan had to be exterminated! What really got under his skin was there were humans helping the Lycans! These Wolfen Cultists would not taint his homelands. If he ever caught one of those cultists, there would be no trial; just a confession and execution. With his dwindling force, he needed an edge. Perhaps a trip to his friend, a local friar would be in order…

A short while later, Randell makes his way to the Village of Compess where his old friend Brother Mattis resides. The village is small and Randell finds Mattis quickly, but it seems that there is something on Brother Mattis' mind... Once the pleasantries are complete, Randell gets down to business.

Game Notes: I worked out if Mattis was to be found using the Larger than Life (LTL) rules also from THW. The Difficulty to find Mattis was 2 (rolled a 5 & 2) and our star passed 1 more die than the quarry so they meet up but with complications. Since in WHAA you only have REP (and no skills) I decided to roll just based on their REP for the outcome of their chat. I determined that Randell would get information to help his quest if he won the opposed task. If Randell failed, he would have to complete a side quest for Mattis in order to get the information he needed. After a bit of discussion (and two more complications), Brother Mattis agrees to give the help Randell needs!

"Brother Mattis, there are Lycans in the area. They must be stopped before any more deaths can occur. My men and I need something to give us the upper hand!”

"I have read tales of a creature called the Velikimrav that might help you in your quest. It is said that the Velikimrav eggs have a potent substance on them! Properly distilled, it’s said to weaken even the most hardy ofcreatures! Beware, the Velikimrav are known for protecting their lairs and eggs with great fervor!"

"Just direct me to these eggs, my good friend..."

Stay tuned for the next installment. Will Randell be able to acquire some of these Velikimrav eggs or will this quest lead him to his doom?

The Timmerland Estate Affair

2009-09-06T20:43:00.000-07:00

When reports of fiendish creatures found their way onto the Prelate's desk, he had no choice than to send a contingent of men to investigate. His first choice was the famed Witch Hunter Randell Burrie. To aid Randell, he sent the capable captain Tealwood and a group of determined soldiers. Since the latest report was at the Timmerland Estate, Mr. Burrie headed there to check the disturbance.

Mr. Randell Burrie (star) - REP 5, AC 3, Hardiness 3; Weapon: magical sword & pistol.
Pistol: IMP 7, RNG 6
Magical Sword: IMP 5, -1 to opponent’s hardiness
Dual Class
CV: 6

Captain Tealwood - REP 5, AC 4, Hardiness 2; Weapon: sword & dagger
Sword: IMP 5
Elite Melee Trained
CV: 5

4x Arquebusiers - REP 4, AC 2, Hardiness 0; Weapon: arquebus & dagger
Arquebus: IMP 7, RNG 24
Dagger: IMP 4
CV: 1

6x Swordsmen - REP 4, AC 4, Hardiness 0; Weapon: sword & shield
Sword: IMP 5
CV: 1

Total CV: 21

Quest goal: Check both buildings for survivors and check all the PEF on the board.

For ease, all PEF have a REP of 4.

The heroes split up with each controlling 2 arquebusiers and 3 swordsmen.

The situation at the start of the game. The question mark tokens are the PEF markers (there is one hidden behind the left building).

T1(2/1): Soldiers move first. Randell moves up the road and Tealwood moves to the right getting LOS to one of the PEFs, but it was just some unfettered farm animals...

T2(4/4):

T3(1/4): One PEF moves into the complex, the other moves directly towards Randell's party. Randell and his group moves up looking for the enemy, but finds nothing of note.

T4(1/1):

T5(5/2): Both Hero groups move up towards the buildings. The main body of the Enemy force (as a PEF) moves around the building coming into sight of Randell's group. It consists of: 1 Alpha Lycan (Big Bad), 2 Brotherhood Lycan, 3 Pack Lycan, and 4 human cultists (it's been a while since I've read the book and didn't understand the gaps for the recruit column in the Lycan Brotherhood so I just decided to improvise). It turns out that there were so many enemy figures that they didn't all fit in the space around the house. Decided to place the human cultists in their own separate group coming out of the house's front door...

The PEF is transformed into 10 figures. There isn't enough room to place all the models behind the building...

1 Alpha Lycan (Big Bad) - REP 6, AC 4, Move 16, Hardiness 4; Weapon: Massive Axe
Terror, Magic Resist
Massive Axe: IMP 7
CV: 10

2 Brotherhood Lycan - REP 5, AC 4, Move 12, Hardiness 2; Weapon: Arm Blade
Arm blade: IMP 5
Frenzy, Magic Resist
CV: 6

3 Pack Lycan - REP 5, AC 4, Move 12, Hardiness 0; Weapon: Spear
Spear: IMP 5
Frenzy
CV: 2

4x Swordsmen Cultists - REP 5, AC 4, Move 6, Hardiness 0; Weapon: Sword & shield
Sword: IMP 5
CV: 2

As soon as both enemy groups appear, they encounter a hero group within 12" and both separately test a Test of Wills (as least that's what I went with). The cultists get the drop on the captain's men and they test to charge! As they move in, one arquebusiers draws a bead on the lead cultist and fires but misses. The two groups merge in a scrum. The cultists are able to get numbers on a swordsman scoring a telling blow and putting him OOF (5 dice are rolled for the cultist and only 3 dice for the swordsman). The first cultist scores 2 more successes and takes the swordsman OOF). Captain Tealwood manages to do a bit better fighting both cultists beating them both back but when he is in single combat, the cultist holds his own (Tealwood won with a single success pushing them back 1", then when he was by himself the combatants rolled the same number of success and the combat ends).

The bulk of the Lycan's come in view of Randell's group and even though terror griped the men's hearts, they charged the beasts! A single swordsmen made contact with a Pack Lycan and manages to hold his own at the start of the combat (the Lycan was rolling 8 dice - 5 for REP, +1 for frenzy, larger base and the spear to 4 dice. I managed to roll only 2 successes for the Lycan rolling 4 sixes and 2 fives. The swordsman actually won by 1 success)! But the Lycan pushes the swordsman back and the end locked in combat (the Lycan wins by one and pushes the swordsman back and the finally roll equal the fight is over)! The captain seeing his share of wounded push on, but one of the swordsman stammers back.

T6(4/2): Both arquebusiers fire at one of the cultist but both miss. The swordsmen move to attack the cultists. It looks grim for the Captain's men as another Swordsmen is OOF (a lot of die rolling, but the better REP cultist continue to prevail).

A second swordsman moves to fight the Lycan, but the man that moved up is no match for the Lycan and is OD!

The other two continue to parry attacks! Randell sees an opening on a cultist once the swordsman fighting him is OOF, but misses. A couple swordsmen move back to regroup as reaction to their fallen comrades.

A pack Lycan and the Alpha fail their charge test and stand back. The rest of the Lycan forces moves in and a huge melee about the complex starts!

At this moment, three of the swordsmen are either OOF or OD. The cultist have managed to get the arquebusiers into the fray.

A cultist takes an arquebusier down, but the other holds his own! The Captain is pitted against two opponents, but only pushes them back. Randell gets into melee with a Pack Lycan is outclassed and is wounded, but survives the onslaught. A second arquebusier is killed by a Pack Lycan. Both an arquebusier and a swordsman flee off the board and even Randell chooses to retire. At the end of the turn, the heroes are in bad shape. Only 1 arquebusier, 2 swordsmen, Tealwood and Randell are alive.

The remaining heroes are attempting just to stay alive.

T7(1/2): The final arquebusier is killed by a Pack Lycan and the heroic swordsman is finally killed. Captain Tealwood survives the attack as does Randell, but is startled not once but twice in the combat! On their turn the remaining heroes retreat off the board.

The Aftermath: The two routers and two wounded swordsmen return to base, but the other figures are never heard from again. All in all 2 swordsmen and 3 arquebusiers are killed in the exchange with none of the enemy even being taken out of the fight. Our heroes will want revenge!

Notes: This game was inspired by the games that were played a couple of weeks ago on the yahoo group for Two Hour Wargames, but I never got a chance to play them until now. Once I got the rules in my head, the game went pretty fast. I forgot due to the speed in some places to actually take pictures and the like, but all in all, a good time. I have some questions about the rules, but I’m sure they will get answered quickly on the yahoo group dedicated to the many THW game systems.

The Great Gencon Giveaway!

2009-08-18T16:07:00.000-07:00

Okay, so perhaps not really a giveaway, but I did manage to sell off a bunch of my boardgames! It seems that though the years, I have amassed quite a collection of boardgames. All told my collection is well into the 100 range. Of course, that means in order to play every boardgame that I own, my friends and I have to play 2 games a week, every week for an entire year!

So, after reading a couple of blogs about trying to manage the size of our addictions ( http://yearoffrugalgaming.blogspot.com/ ), I decided to lower the number of games that I have. To that end, I went and took stock at my ever increasing game library and I noticed that I had to cull the herd. With one of the largest gaming conventions (www.Gencon.com) an hour away, I set out to take a number of my games for sale. My thought was I’d take a couple of the games that it was obvious that we weren’t going to ever play and get some spending money. Two large plastic tubs and about 30 games later, I traveled to the convention center to see if I could make some money. I used boardgamegeek.com as a starting point for the selling price, but I also allowed for the price to go down over the three days (100% the first, 90% the second and 75% the third). My thought was that even 75% of what I wanted was better than having to lug all the unused games back to my house.

The only downer was the commission cost for the service! They took 15% of the final sell price as a commission fee and there was an initial cost to place it in the store (50 cent per game if placed into the store and 1 dollar is placed into the auction).

Of the 30 games I took to the convention only 4 didn’t sell! My totals were $586.00. After the $87.90 commission fee (and the 16 dollar initial fee), I made out with $482.10. Of course, a lot of that was spent at Gencon, but it’s nice to have the entire convention paid for by stuff you sell! Now that I got rid of about a third of my collection, I don’t feel too bad picking up the occasional boardgame again!

The Great Mage Knight Conversion

2009-07-06T18:48:00.001-07:00

Half way through working through my idea for the Murky Caves (my Origin’s game for SBH), I knew that I was going to need a bunch more miniatures if I was going to have enough to run the dungeon as I wanted. I had bought a bunch of D&D singles (pre painted plastic miniatures), but it was just not going to be enough. After determining exactly how much I had spent on stuff, I remembered that I had a lot of old Mage Knight figures that hadn’t seen the light of day for a while.

Preparing the Figures

I needed to get the miniatures off click base. There were two main reasons for this. First the base is 1.5” around which was too big for my purposes (most of my stuff is on a 1” base) and second, I had to hide the click nature of the miniature.

1. I found the best tool for the job is a razor blade scraper (used to remove paint and such from glass). Carefully slide the blade under the miniature until it pops off. Some were relatively easy and some took a little work.

2. I found a great deal on wooden disks online somewhere so I wanted to use them. The only major problem is that superglue won’t attach a miniature to the disk. In the end, I used a two-part epoxy and it worked great. Remember that the fumes that are produced are dangerous – have decent ventilation! As you can see I have two wooden disk sizes available a normal 1” disk and a larger 1.5” disk.

3. After the epoxy dries (mine only took about 10 minutes), paint the base black. This is mainly due to the fact that all my D&D miniatures are a simple black base and they fit right in.

(From Left to right: a starting MK figure, the scraper used, the same model off the base, the epoxy I used, the wooden disks, a model on a disk and the figure on the black painted base)

I hope to go back and repaint some of the MK figures. Most of my come of the earlier sets and the paint job is really bad. Hokey in some respects! I’d also like to finish the bases on some of them to make then stand out less, but it’s definitely not a priority.

(You can see the number of empty bases from the now converted figures)

Most of my MK collection is from the dungeons series that came out. I have the whole line of heroes that I should go ahead and convert as well. More so now since I really don’t have enough of playable mage knight figures!

Origins 2009 Report

2009-07-05T08:20:00.000-07:00

Finally Origins has come and gone and I can finally stop working on the games I’m running and start working on actually playing games. At least I can say that a good understanding of what to do and what not to do for conventions. For those who don’t know, Origins is a gaming convention that takes place around the end of June in Columbus OH (its official title is Origins Game Fair). It’s a five day event that has a little bit of everything a gamer would want! Board games, miniature games and RPGs go on throughout the day.

Thursday

We got to the convention center around 10am and after a brief visit to get my badge and a small tour around the miniatures room, it was time to check out the Dealer’s Hall. I used a lot of restraint and didn’t buy anything, but I used the time to mark where I would be making the trip back at a later date.

At 1pm, I headed to play in a Fear and Faith (F&F) demo by Ganesha Games ( http://www.songofblades.blogspot.com/ ). When I got there, Andrea (the designer) was explaining the rules for the game. I jumped in as the zombie player and got trounced handily. It turns out that my opponent had played the fantasy version of the game and wanted to see the differences. Of course before I sat down, each of the human survivors were given a single grenade. It was a slaughter! Still fun though.

2pm was a Battlestations game by Gorilla Games ( http://www.battlestations.info/ ). Again I got to play with the designer (Jason) and they were trying out their new expansion that will be released at Gencon. For those that have never played, Battlestations is a light RPG/board game that the players are all characters on a space ship completing missions for the UREF. Each character has a race (which gives a special ability), 5 stats (Engineering, Piloting, Combat, Science & Athletics) and a profession. Mechanics are simple (2d6 + stat vs. Difficulty number) and the action is quite entertaining. There are rules to advance your character and the like (and with clones, you can never truly die if you don’t want to). The game was a blast and I had so much fun, I went back for more.

Every year, my friends and I head to Schmidt’s for “Sausage fest” ( http://www.schmidthaus.com/ ). They have an all-you –can-eat sausage buffet with all the trimmings. Add a 32 oz beer and a cream puff for desert and you got a German experience to knock your socks off! It’s been a tradition since we starting going to Origins and I’m sure it will continue!

I did get to play a demo of Squadron Strike ( http://www.adastragames.com/ ). Once you get your brain wrapped about the 3D nature of the game, it’s pretty fun. I wanted to play in a full fledge ship to ship battle before I made any commitment. Unfortunately for me (but fortunately for my pocket book), I never got into a full battle over the weekend…

Friday

9am: I actually ran a Starmada: Battlestar Galactica game ( http://www.mj12games.com/ ). I had 2 players show up so I gave them two ships apiece and let them tear into each other. Due to the amount of work that I was doing for the SBH game, I didn’t have much in the way of scenario or terrain, but the players didn’t seem to care! In the end, the colonial forces wiped out the Cylon attack force with minor damage to the Pegasus.

1pm: I had a single player for my Song of Blades and Heroes game from Ganesha Games so after a quick rule discussion, we started playing the game. The player caught on really quick and it was good fun. It’s too bad more people didn’t want to jump in, but that’s due in my opinion two major reasons. One, the Warlord/Reaper guys already do a huge dungeon game complete with an awesome Hirst Arts( http://www.hirstarts.com/ ) setup (something I didn’t have with my converted Mage Knight figures and simple vinyl dungeon tiles). Secondly, there was a ton of SBH games running throughout the convention (too much of a good thing can still lead to too much).

After a quick peek into the Dealer’s Hall (I played the reprinted Tales of the Arabian Nights board game by Zman games – which I would have bought had they not sold out of it) and a little dinner, it was back to the miniature hall. I went to play a playtest of the Tales of Blade and Heroes, the new RPG from Ganesha Games. Personally, I’m a little leery of playing RPGs at conventions having too many bad experiences to count, but I really like the miniature system and the designer is awesome so I figured what the heck… Also, I wanted to see if I could adapt the rules for use as an expanded SBH miniatures game. The system was quite entertaining (the exploding 6 mechanic and the boosts were a great) and although I don’t think I’d ever play it as a pure RPG game, it has a ton of potential for use in the SBH miniature game.

Saturday

9am: Again a Starmada: Battlestar Galactica game and this time I had six players (I even had someone with generics, but I just didn’t have the space). Each player had a single miniature (granted it was about 1000 pts worth) and it was a slugfest. In the end, the Cylon players managed to destroy the Atlantia and cripple the Pegasus having only minimal damage to a single baseship. I was pretty glad that the scenario yielded a 1-1 overall!

~2pm: Due to the previous game running a bit long and the reasons above, I didn’t have any players for my second SBH game on Saturday. It’s unfortunate that I spend all the time, energy and money getting the game ready and not having any players, but there wasn’t much I can do. Thankfully most of the stuff that I prepared for the SBH game, I can reuse for my own personal games so I’m not too worried! Actually, I learned some valuable lessons in game presentation and scenario design that should help me in the conventions to come. I was a little disheartened, but I used my new found freedom to get into a second Battlestations game (Note: the second game was great has well. I tip my hat to the brothers).

~7pm: Due to dinner running over, I was unable to make it back in time for either of the games I wanted to play in. The first was a Hordes of the Things (HOTT) tournament. I did stop by and watch some of the action, but never got into a game. The second was a game using the “With Hostile Intent” rules (a great name for a spaceship combat game in my opinion). In the end, I spent the time moving from table to table watching all the different games being played.

Sunday

8am: I played in a Ghostbuster game that was a blast. The presentation was wondrous and the game play was perfect for early morning of the last day. We defeated the bad guy (you know the one) and walked away with a cool sticker showing off my ghostbuster skills (not mine, I couldn’t hit anything really).

The rest of the day was making my way back into the dealer’s hall to buy all of my needed purchases. I learned how to play Steam – the ‘remake’ of Age of Steam. It’s more forgiving than AoS so I might buy that as soon as Tales of Arabian Nights arrives. Due to a calculation error, I spend a little more than I wanted to, but nothing that I can’t handle pending I don’t buy any miniature stuff for a while (like until Gencon).

Notable purchases:

All Things Zombie (ATZ): Haven – I even got a quick demo by the Ed (the designer). I really need to finish my zombies and pick up some modern figures for use in ATZ and F&F. As an added bonus, I got 5150 book 1 for 10 bucks ( http://www.twohourwargames.com/ )!

Song of Splintered Lands: I knew that this was going to be an auto-buy since I have all the rules in the SBH series. What I didn’t know that I would be leaving the booth with ~50 dollars worth of their beautiful 15mm figures. I’m in the process of removing 15mm from the scales I play in, but these miniatures are beautiful and work awesome side by side with the larger 28mm cousins.

Savage Worlds – Fantasy Companion: This was a complete impulse buy for me, but due to a blog that I follow I picked it up. I have used the Savage World system for Dark City Games solo adventures and I’ve also seen people using the Savage World rules for purely miniature game so I figured that this would help me expand the rules ( http://www.peginc.com/ ).

Spaceship models: I bought a second Prometheus from the Iron Wind Metals booth ( http://www.ironwindmetals.com/ ) . The one I have will need some serious work since the engine piece doesn’t match up with the ship hull. I figured that I could use the second one for some serious BSG actions! I also bought a couple of ships from Ninja Magic ( http://www.ninjamagic.com/ ). Mainly the main colony ship from Homeworld and a couple of BSG inspired ships that actually are in the BS Prometheus fan story.

Dominion: Intrigue – The expansion for Dominion was out and I saw people walking about with it all weekend. The game itself is a good one so I really wanted to pick up the expansion. I have not been disappointed yet, although the new actions cards are a bit strange. I’m not sure why they needed to make it a fully playable game on its own (it has the needed VP and money cards), but I’m not going to let that harm my view of the game.

Final Thoughts

Origins Game Fair is always a great time! I enjoy the weekend of gaming and although I didn’t get to play all the games I wanted to, it was still a lot of fun. Now I have to relax and read all the books I bought from the convention and get ready for Gencon.

No 'games' to report

2009-05-08T20:49:00.001-07:00

Okay, so another month goes by with little actual gaming occurring. The big issue is that I do find time to play games; every Thursday I go to the local game store to play either Warmachine/Hordes or MonPoc. Warmachine was in the mk2 playtest for April which was very exciting! It changes a lot of what has come before, but I find myself wanting to play games with the new set. It's a nice change.

I'm still working on the both the starmada and SBH scenarios for Origins. I have to make sure that I have enough stuff for a decent game, but not alot in terms of packages. I don't want to have to drive myself so I would really like to limit it to a case or so.

My current project is making the room monsters and the assorted accesories located in the dungeon. I am in the process of taking a bunch of my old mage knight miniatures and rebasing them for the game. Hopefully, I'll have that done in the next few days and I can begin to playtest what I got...

The Dungeon - SBH

2009-04-10T23:30:00.000-07:00

Since I am going to be running a dungeon crawl for 6 players at Origins using the Song of Blades and Heroes rule set, I need to work out how I wanted the game to flow for the event. The first test was to figure out what sizes or rooms and corridors that I'll need to make the game fun and challenging. Although I would love to have a huge 3D dungeon for the event, I just won’t have the needed place to carry and store it.

So, a while ago I picked up the game Dungeon Bash from The Other Game Company (TOGC) and while cleaning my gaming area found the tiles that I had made for that game. I figured that I’d use those as a starting point and move from there. The Dungeon Bash rules also have a random dungeon generator so I figured that I could use that to create my dungeon. The tiles are your standard D&D variety. All corridors are 2 squares (read inches here) wide with two room sizes - small (4 by 6) and large (6 by 8).

Due to the ability for players to bring their own warbands to the event, I need to have a warband that comes completely from the printed rosters to test out my ideas than the one I normally play. Looking over the rules for dungeons, I came up with the following:

1x Elf Archer (55pts)

2x Dwarf Elite Warrior (46pts apiece)

1x Human Warrior (30pts)

1x Halfling Thief (16pts)1x human Mage (40pts)

1x Human Leader (60pts)

Total: 293 pts with 100 pts of personalities

I'll eventually need to create 6 warbands for the game so I'm not sure if I like the multiple race types in this one. Only more playtesting (and seeing what model I actually have) will determine this. I also want to limit the number of figures in the warbands that I create (although 7 isn’t a bad starting point).

A couple of rule tests:
1. Each player (and monsters) will be given a card to determine the turn order for that round. I think that will be the easiest and give some randomness to the turn order. I haven’t decided how to move the enemies in the event yet since the rules for failures.

2. At the end of the player’s turn, they will check for wandering monsters by rolling 2 dice. If doubles are rolled and it is equal or greater to that player’s wandering monster number (WMN), a wandering monster group will be placed in some cool fashion. A player’s WMN starts at 6 and will lower by one each turn it is unsuccessful.

3. Normally monsters will not have enough treasure on them to matter, but after each monster killed, 2 dice are rolled. On doubles, a number of treasure cards will be drawn determining the worth of the stash. Some especially powerful creatures will add a die to this roll (still looking for doubles).

4. Each character may carry a single treasure load without penalty. Big creatures can carry 2 and huge can carry 4 without penalty.

For the game, the normal sized creature group was about 100 points and the wandering monster groups were either 2 orc warriors (1-2), two orc archers (3-4) or one of each (5-6). The ‘quest’ room was around 150 points.

Note: the first of the two numbers for the combat results is the die roll.

The 'start' room with the Heroes all inside.

Turn 1 and 2: Heroes start to move up to the closest door. Both corridors are long and complaex (I rolled really high for both).

Turn 3: My human warrior end her turn next to the door finding a large room with 4 orcs and a single treasure (I was places a treasure horde on a 5+, but I might change how this works)! The mage casts transfix at the closest warrior and successes. One of the elite dwarf warriors moves into the doorway. I also rolled double 5 for the wandering monster roll (WMR) and 2 orc warriors appeared down a second hallway. Both orc Archers activate and shoot at the dwarf with nothing happening (3+3 v 5+4 and 1+3 v 4+4).

The heroes are being flanked as most are doing battle in the large room.

Turn 4: My elf archer moves and attacks but doesn’t manage to score a hit (2+3 v 6+3). The dwarf move father into the room to attack pushing his opponent back (5+4 v 5+3).The human warrior moves in and knocks an orc warrior down (2+3 c 1+3). The Mage casts bolt at the transfix model, but the effect doesn’t seem to do any harm (1+4 v 6+3). No wandering monsters (needed to roll double 6s). The orc archers shoot at the halfling and the elite dwarf warrior but nothing happens (2+1 v 5+1 and 4+3 v 5+3). The orc warrior shakes off the spell and attacks but is knocked down by the dwarf (3+3 v 4+4).

Turn 5: The leader moves to engage the orc while the human warrior power attacks the fallen warrior scoring a gruesome kill (4+5 v 2+2). One the orc archer runs to the door and opens it and the other archer runs off the explored area.

Playtest thought: I determined that the next wandering monster would include any model that fled from a battle. This won’t be an issue when the complete dungeon will be set up for the event.

The elf archer attacks the warrior but merely pushes it back (5+3 v 5+1). Both of the dwarves move with the second one making an attack. Due to the door instead of being fallen, the model falls (1+4 v 3+1)! Still no wandering monsters.

Playtest note: Since the door was ‘opened’ by the archer, perhaps he should have just been placed one base width through the door.

The Orc warrior attacks the human leader killing him (6+3 v 2+2). The elf human warrior and mage flee 1 move (It should have only been the elf since no other characters could see the leader, but I was messing up how the +1 Quality for the leader was working so it kind of balances out – I’ll know next time).

Turn 6: The mage transfixes the orc warrior and the elf archer aims and finishes it off (3+5 v 1+2).One of the dwarves power attacks the orc archer killing him (4+4 v 3+1) while the second dwarf picks up the treasure. The orc warrior pushes his target (4+3 v 5+3)

Turn 7: The elf archer moves up and power attacks the warrior knocking to the ground (6+3 v 4+1), but the orc warrior stand and attacks and pushes the human warrior back (5+3 v 3+2).

Turn 8: Heroes surround the final orc and a dwarf gruesomely finishes it off (6+3 v 2+0).

Turn 9: Heroes discover a small room with a mummy and two skeletal archers (no treasure). Both skeletal archers attack the human warrior – the first manages to knock her down, but the second can’t kill her off (4+1 v 1+3 and 5+1 v 6+2). The mummy (the reaper model) moves next to the fallen human warrior who tries to flee but is killed instead.

The human warrior must have found an old crypt.

Turn 10: The elf aims at the mummy and hits it with a lethal shot (6+1 v 1+2) making its quality 6+. There are still no random monsters (my WMN is now a 1). The skeletal archer fails two dice and that round ends.

A clean shot from the elf archer strikes the mummy wounding it!

Turn 11: The elf archer rolls three 1s ending the hero’s turn. I also roll doubles and 3 orc archers appear. One of the orc archers attacks the Halfling knocking him to the ground (5+1 v 3+1 – normally a push back, but can’t due to the fact that there is a model in the way).

There were a couple more turns (4 to be exact), but most of them were spent attacking the mummy in the doorway and the orc archers that appeared in a separate corridor. At this point, I had ran out of time to play so I decided to roll up the whole dungeon to see what it looks like once complete. I stupidly didn’t keep track of the amount of time played so that will have to be in the second test. All in all, it was a good playtest. I have some ideas for the set up and the like that I’ll need to get finished as soon as possible so I can try them out. I have about 2 months to finish everything.

As you can see, it was a big dungeon complex. I wonder how long it would have taken to actually 'explore'.

Friday Night Fights - special Tuesday edition

2009-03-10T09:28:00.000-07:00

Someone (named "aroninphilosopher") on the THW boards has been talking about his fights which prompted me to dust off my copy of Friday Night Fights (special Tuesday edition I guess). The game is pretty entertaining and there is a bit of strategy so it works in all respects. Plus, I didn’t have to clean up the last game since it doesn’t take up too much room. It didn’t take long to get back into the ‘swing’ of things (best pun ever).

As before, the challenger is Jacob “Mac” McGrath, a 5’8” 162 lb Middleweight with decent boxing skills (level 4) and is fairly aggressive (level 3), but his real advantage is his Quick Reflexes. [Taken directly from the Promo sheet]

Jacob has been working hard and has managed to increase his power which should help him when he gets a chance to go in for the KO punch!

Since the first five bouts can be 4 rounds, we’ll have a short one before the big times. Randel West comes in as a decent boxer which great stamina. Can the challenger take him down!

Unlike last time, I didn’t do a round by round write up. It was more of a summary of events. Let me know which one is better.

Here is my setup for the fights (Stock photo Courtesy of 12/12/2008).

Round 1: Jacob connects early with a series of punches in the center of the ring until broke up. The round ends with both boxers in the center of the ring and evenly matched.

Round 2: Early in the round, another flurry of punches by Jacob while Randel is on the ropes. Randel cuts off the ring, but the boxers are evenly match and the round ends.

Round 3: Both are squaring off in the center of the ring, but no one can get the advantage. Late in the round Randel is pushed in to the ropes, but no true victor can be determined.

Round 4: Both boxers are putting everything they can in to the fight to win the match, but nothing comes of it in the beginning of the round. Late in the round, Jacob gets put into the ropes, but comes out in an array of punches putting Randel in the corner, looks like Jacob has a chance to put Randel to the canvas, but can’t seal the deal. The referee steps in and the round ends…

Winner by Unanimous Decision, Jacob McGrath (40 to 37)! Crowd goes wild.
This win gains me 1 fame point (up to 13), but a 5 - 0 - 2KOs record. I manage to get a +1 to my quickness. With the quick reflexes, I’m becoming a terror on the Clinch Table.

Now that I have 5 bouts under me, I start moving to the big time arenas. Of course that means that I’ll have to survive 10 rounds. Next up is Stuart “Stu” Smith, an aggressive boxer with good boxing skills, but known for his slippery defense. Will the pressure be too much for the challenger?

Round 1: Stu hits the canvas late in the round, but manages to shake it off.
Round 2: Jacob continues to keep control of the match.
Round 3: Jacob gets Stu to the KO table, but fails to score the knockdown blow! Stu finally scores points.
Round 4: A quick round, but Jacob get a couple solid punches – looks like they’re judge this in his favor.
Round 5: Jacob covers up to get out of the round with minimal work.
Round 6: Jacob pushes Stu to the ropes, but a sudden uppercut catches him unaware! Stu just didn’t have the power behind the punch to knock Jacob to the mat. – Jacob clearly loses his first round (at this point both boxers have 4 Bonus Dice remaining).
Round 7: Jacob puts Stu back on the canvas, but Stu recovers
Round 8: Jacob can’t capitalize on the now tired Stu.
Round 9: Jacob covers up twice after being backed into the ropes (from the stalking table).
Round 10: Jacob and Stu just hammer each other, but no fighter hits the canvas.

Winner by Unanimous Decision, Jacob McGrath (99 to 91)! Another fame point and in a crazy mental moment, I try to increase boxing. I first roll a 1 & 5 which allows me a second chance. The dice come up 5 &5 and I increase boxing to 5! Now 6 - 0 - 2KOs and 14 fame.

The next match is going to be a 10 round match against Tim Withers a boxer not known for his aggression or his speed (slow attribute).

Round 1: Jacob clearly has the advantage with the higher boxing skill against the slower Tim. If Tim doesn’t win the stalking table, he immediately covers up!
Round 2: Time hits the canvas from a strong hook from Jacob, but is only stunned and the match continues.
Round 3: No real excitement as it’s clear that Jacob out classes the slower Tim.
Round 4: Tim punches Jacob into the ropes, but neither boxer can gain ground (on the clinch table)
Round 5 to 7: Tim just can’t seem to get into a favorable position and covers up through most of these rounds, but spending a lot of his reserves in the process (Tim is running quickly out of bonus dice).
Round 8: Tim is in a world of hurt from the beating Jacob is giving him, but Jacob can’t seem to knock Tim to the mat (Tim is in the corner with no boxing dice remaining).
Round 9: Jacob finally knocks Tim to the canvas. The referee calls a TKO!

After the amount of times I’ve made it to the KO table, but can’t get the knockdown, I try to increase my power. I roll a 2 & 4, but my second roll is a 5 & 5 which succeeds!

Jacob McGrath is now 7 – 0 with 3 KOs and 15 fame. He is a very skilled boxer (boxing skill 5) with solid power (level 4) and decent quickness (level 3, but has the quick reflexes attribute); a moderate aggression (level 3) and good stamina (level 4) rounds out his abilities. It looks like he has the ability to go real far!

After playing a couple of full bouts, the game is pretty entertaining. If you are playing solo, the first couple of rounds can make or break you if you can take control of the match. Of course, you use too many bonus dice and you will be hurting once it goes to the middle rounds.

The final match was kind of sad. Jacob would normally win the stalking roll (it’s 8 to 6 dice) so Tim would cover up once it went to the boxing table (5 + 1 for him being slow vs. 4). Most often than not, Tim would be forced into the ropes/corner and Jacob would use him as a punching bag. There was the shot in the 4th that Tim on the ropes was able to win by 3 dice and had a chance to knock Jacob to the mat, but with a power of 1, it just wasn’t meant to be.

Still alive

2009-03-06T22:32:00.000-08:00

I know that It's been a while since I posted on this blog. It's not that I have stopped or anything, but the recent couple of weeks have been too cold to make it to the game area. The major problem with a walkout unfinished basement. It's gets pretty darn cold in there if it's cold outside!

Still, I'm working on a couple of games and with Privateer Press talking about not going to Origins, I am working on a different idea to get a free badge. Table Top Gamers (based in Ohio and an awesome bunch of people) are always looking for help and I might bring SBH to Origins for a couple of 2 hour sessions. I'm hoping to have about 4 sessions to learn the rules and a couple of sessions of a four-for all!

Stay tuned...

Song of Blades and Heroes - Against the Nephew

2009-02-17T18:29:00.001-08:00

So when my Nephews came for a visit this past Friday, the older one (who is 10 and named Dakota) saw that I still had a game set up on my game tables and asked what all parents and uncles want to hear: “Can we play this game?”. Of course, one I set the other nephew (name’s Trace) up on the game cabinet, I started to determine the teams. Once he said something, I figured the easiest to explain and set up in a small amount of time was Song of Blade and Heroes (it was). I have a bunch of figures laying about the tables and start to determine the warbands.

After some cajoling, he decided on the heroes so I took the villains. After looking through my minis and the rule book, I settled for these warbands. I used just the profiles found in the main rulebook so I could explain quickly and get going. We didn’t have much time and I didn’t want to disinterest him…

The forces have started to move together!

The Good (297pts)
2x Dwarf Elite Warriors @ 46pts
1x Elf Archer @ 55pts
5x Human Warriors (30pts)

The Bad (294pts)
3x Orc Warriors (23pts)
2x Orc Archers (29pts)
3x Goblin Warriors (15pts)
2x Goblin Archers (21pts)
1x Small Dragon (80pts)

I took the dragon mainly due to the fact that I was running out of green-skins and it fits the needed points perfectly. Besides, I should be able to handle the specials.

After the warbands were determined, I quickly went through the rules and the game was on. I helped him with tactics since I’m sure that he hasn’t done any wargaming, but he picked it up pretty fast and was starting to enjoy himself. The best part of the game was the play by play of the separate battles when the dice were rolled. I wish adults could keep that kind of imagination!

One of the elite dwarves is surrounded, but is managing to stay alive. It doesn't look good for the dragon.

Due to time limitations, we didn’t get the complete game in, but the forces of good were definitely coming out on top. Perhaps, I’m going to have to ask for a rematch when he comes back down!

The battle when Grandma called it - It was dinner time (Notice that the dragon is holding its own on the right flank).

Rescue the Priestess - SBH game

2009-01-14T15:12:00.000-08:00

Saviors of the Savage Lands – Rescue the Priestess

With the priestess in the hands of the Wolfen, Jareth and his band knew they have but one chance to save the priestess from a grisly fate. With only Pip slightly wounded, they stalk Onyx and his gang back to a heavily forested location and wait for their forces to split up before rushing in to save Verlia.

Everyone in the band was healed except for Pip who was +1 Quality. I don’t have any Fame points and my money is fairly low so I press on with what I got. Hopefully there won’t be any major issues…

Scenario Rules:
I decide that for the rescue that the Wolfen warband is split into two forces. Half are guarding the priestess and the other half off doing ‘something’. I also decided to play with the 400 point Wolfen warband I created in the previous game (see that post for the Wolfen stats). For reinforcements, I’d roll 1d6 at the beginning of Onyx’s turn. If the die roll plus the turn number was 7+, the reinforcements would arrive in the middle of the left or right side of the battlefield and activate normally. In order to free the priestess of her bonds, a single model in base to base contact must take two actions in a single activation. If I can manage to free the priestess and get her off the board without her fleeing or being killed, I’ll receive 50 silver pennies once I get her to the shrine. Models killed before the reinforcements will only grant half their cost for VP purposes (rounded down).

The Wolfen (399 pts)

Guarding force
1x Hunters @ 57 (56 was a typo)
3x Fangs @ 51

Reinforcements
Onyx @ 132
1x Hunter @ 57

Okay, this being my third or fourth game of SBH, I am still learning the strategy for the system. I haven’t played much DBA/DBM so the doubling method isn’t my strong suit. So when I set this game up and play it, I got killed in turn 2! Yep, turn two. I think the entire game (including set up and writing down the action) took 10 minutes TOPS! My problem is that I placed Jareth in front of Erdan and Durgon as a screen and a Fang attacks Jareth knocking him down. I roll 2 dice for Jareth’s activation and I fail both. This passes the turn over to the Wolfen and the Fang in combat with Jareth makes short work of him (6+5 vs 2+4). The resultant leader loss makes two of my models flee off the board (I’m only about 1 long on the field anyway). The 50% warband check results in everyone but Durgon retiring from the field.

So, I do what any person growing up in the computer age does… I press the ‘reset’ button and chalk that up as a learning experience and reset the game to play it over. No one (including myself) wants a 2 turn battle report! For all results below, the die roll is the second number for all combats so "5+4" means that I rolled a 4 adding to the modified combat score of 5.

The terrain is set up as a nice wooded area that the Wolfen can get plenty of ambushes if they can manage it.

Turn 1 & 2: The Heroes move up and so do the Wolfen (no reinforcements).

Turn 3: Erdan aims at a Fang and knocks him prone [5+4 v 2+4]. Flashfire engages the lone Hunter. Durgon moves and power attacks the fallen Fang killing it [6+2 v 2+5]. No reinforcements, but the Hunter attacks Flashfire after a Fang moved up to help (I rolled 3 dice, but only got a single success), but the Hunter is knocked prone [4+1 v 4+4]!

Turn 4: Durgon moves and attacks fallen Hunter, but are evenly matched [6+3 v 3+6]! Erdan moves to attack the same Hunter, but manages to kill it [6+6 v 2+5]! Flashfire attacks the Fang and kills him outright [5+5 v 3+2]. The single remaining Fang makes a morale check and moves back a move (50% total warband). The reinforcements arrive on the right side of the board and both begin to move into range.

Turn 5: Erdan and Durgon move to help free the priestess. Onyx attacks Pip knocking the Halfling prone [5+6 v 3+5].

Turn 6: Durgon frees the priestess and the Heroes surround Onyx. Erdan power attacks Onyx, knocking him down [5+6 v 3+3], but the heroes can’t capitalize. Onyx attacks Jareth after a Hunter moved into contact, but they are evenly matched [3+5 v 2+6].

A huge melee occurs. Flashfire must be busy cleaning her claws after the kill (note the new bases)!

Turn 7: Xaria casts a Power 1 transfix at the Hunter and he fails the check becoming transfixed (I rolled a 1). Erdan power attacks Onyx, but they are evenly matched [3+5 v 2+6]. Jareth attacks the transfixed Hunter killing him [4+6 v 3+5], but he ends the turn due to two failures. Fang attacks Erdan but are evenly matched [3+3 v 3+3]. Onyx attacks Jareth, but is knocked down [3+1 v 3+4].

Turn 8: Erdan power attacks Onyx, but again they are evenly matched [5+3 v 2+6]. Then Jareth attacks and Onyx is wounded [5+3 v 3+2], but the turn ends due to two failures. Onyx gets up and attacks Jareth pushing him back [3+5 v 2+3].

Turn 9: Durgon power attacks Fang, but is saved by his heavy armor [4+3 v 3+5]. Xaria casts a power 2 transfix at Onyx, but he shakes off the effects. Jareth attacks Onyx, but is pushed back [3+2 v 3+5]. Erdan power attacks Onyx knocking him to the ground [3+6 v 3+2]. Pip power attacks Onyx, but it knocked prone [5+3 v 3+6]. Pip uses his last action to stand. Onyx attacks Erdan, but again is knocked prone by his actions [4+1 v 2+4]!

Turn 10: Durgon lunges at the Fang pushing him back [4+5 v 2+6]. Both Erdan and Pip attack Onyx wounding him [6+4 v 2+4] and [5+4 v 2+5]. Onyx again tries to hit Jareth, but is knock prone [3+3 v 3+6]!

The final moments of Onyx as he is seriously wounded (at 6+ quality), fallen and surrounded by heroes!

Turn 11: Erdan finally kills Onyx [6+1 v 2+2]. The heroes surround the lone Fang and Durgon moves up and knocks the Fang to the ground [4+2 v 2+2]. Jareth makes the killing stroke ending the game [5+5 v 1+5].

Wrap up: What a difference the reset made. I think I’m starting to figure out the strategy - at least a little bit. Of course, good die rolls helped out a ton (the reinforcements coming a bit late and all the fallen results on Onyx when he was attacking). In hindsight, I had an action remaining in turn 2 to engage Erdan with a Fang and I should have done that instead of staying at range or moved so he was outside 1 long. The result would have been the same (Erdan would have been combat 4 to the Fang’s 3), but I probably would have moved Durgon first to help the combat values a bit. A model with tough and hero is a very rough combatant. Even when the model is at a quality 6+, you can’t count them out due to the free success!

I was awarded 50 silver pennies (and 50 fame points) due to freeing the priestess and I gained a whooping 318 VPs. Since all my heroes survived, I have 6 shares so everyone is awarded 5 XP. After paying for upkeep, I have 99 silver pennies remaining. Perhaps I need to make rules on how you can buy magical items and the like in this campaign. Currently, money is only used for upkeep and to purchase Mercs.

XP values after this game:
Jareth: 9
Xaria: 11
Erdan 12
Flashfire: 7
Durgon: 7
Pip: 8

I might spend 10 XP to make Erdan a personality. Then I can buy Hero once I get enough XP, but I’m torn on my own rules. I want ‘personalities’ to be rare which is why you have to spend XP just to become a personality, but I only have 12 XP after 3 games.

Final Thoughts: Now I know that some people would scoff at the reset that I did since I’m playing a campaign. Don’t worry; I feel a little bit dirty about it as well. Once I finished my first turn with Jareth in the lead, I remembered how brutal the Wolfen in combat were. I thought of moving him behind my front line (like what I did in the reset), but decided to just roll with it (see where that got me). So, I still had some time to play and I already had the game set up so I just started over (plus, who would have thought that I would have done so awesome in the second attempt). My second reason for the reset is that I needed a write up for my battle and a two turn game would have been pointless. At least with that much XP, I can start testing the campaign system (even if it is my personal creation). I did roll to see what happened to Jareth just in case I wanted to use the original results (he would have suffered a minor wound being +1 Quality for the next game).

The Sorcerer's Manor - Savage Worlds

2009-01-03T22:14:00.000-08:00

At Origins this year, I picked up the Savage Worlds Explorer’s Edition rule book. I’ve always enjoyed the concept of the system and the book was a reasonable price so I figured what the heck. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to play any games with it, not even any Savage Worlds Showdown (their miniatures game based on their RPG rules).

Fast forward to November of this year when it was announced that Dark City Games was going to release their great solo adventures for the SW system. Imagine the old “Choose Your Own Adventure” books, but for wargaming! I jumped at the chance to purchase Crown of Kings and immediately started to figure out the SW rules and make four novice characters. Recently, the fine people at DCG re-released one of their free sample modules for SW. I couldn’t pass the chance of take a test drive with the rules before jumping into a full module.

My characters are based off the pre-gen characters available from Pinnacle Entertainment Group (PEG), the makers of Savage Worlds:

Merula Lanus [Human]
Agility: d6, Smarts: d8, Spirit: d6, Strength: d4, Vigor: d6
Fighting d4, Investigation d6, Knowledge (Arcana) d8, Spellcasting d8, Notice d6, Persuasion d4, Streetwise d6, Taunt d4
Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 5
Hinderances: Curious, Death Wish, Habit
Edges: Arcane Background (Magic), Attractive, Power Points
Powers: Light, Bolt, Defection

Marcus Twohands [Human]
Agility: d8, Smarts: d6, Spirit: d4, Strength: d6, Vigor: d6
Climbing d6, Fighting d8, Lockpicking d6, Notice d4, Stealth d8, Streetwise d4, Throwing d8
Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 6
Hinderances: Greedy, Overconfident, Outsider
Edges: Ambidextrous, Thief, Two Fisted

Janine Blackhair [Human]
Agility: d6, Smarts: d6, Spirit: d4, Strength: d8, Vigor: d10
Fighting d10, Gambling d6, Intimidation d6, Notice d6, Taunt d6, Throwing d4
Pace: 6; Parry: 7; Toughness: 8 (2)
Hinderances: Bad Luck, Outsider, Pacifist (Mi)
Edges: Berserk, Trademark Weapon (Battle Axe)

Ramel Ramelson [ Dwarf]
Agility: d6, Smarts: d6, Spirit: d8, Strength: d4, Vigor: d6
Faith d8, Fighting d6, Healing d6, Intimidation d6, Notice d6,Persuasion d6, Streetwise d4
Pace: 6; Parry: 6 (1); Toughness: 7 (2)
Hinderances: Arrogant, Big Mouth, Loyal
Edges: Arcane Background (Miracles), Power Points, Low Light Vision
Powers: Boost/Lower Trait, Healing

Here is my set up. I bought a plexiglass sheet so I can write notes if needed.

Since this is a downloadable programmed adventure, I don’t want to spoil any of the fun if someone wants to check it out and play it. For that reason, I will only give some of the highlights!
Against a living statue: Ramel gets a second joker (two in a row) and hits. Both damage dice Ace (An ace is when a die rolls the maximum number – in Ramel case two sixes. Any die that aces is rerolled and the amount is added to the final total) and the resulting damage amount is 19 well enough to crumble the statue.

Against Spiders: Ramel critically fails a vigor roll for poison. I state that it doubles the potency of the poison. Ramel, his body wracked in pain scores a might hit and scores a killing blow (I aced a damage roll). Then Merula moves up and attacks a spider and amazingly hits doing an unheard of 15 points of damage killing the spider.

Against the shadows: Janine rears back with her battle axe and crushes the shadow with a 26 damage points enough for 5 wounds (If you equal the toughness of a model, you score a ‘shaken’ result. For every 4 over the toughness is a wound. Most models have only 1 wound. Wild Cards (like all of my characters) have 4 wounds. The toughness of the shadow is 6, so 6-9: shaken, 10-13: 1 wound, 14-17: 2 wounds and so on). Since the shadow was a wild card, this was an amazing help!

Here's a shot after the final battle before the characters make their way out of the manor. Notice all the notes scribbled about including the map, turn counters and the shadows damage.

All in all, it was a great time. I really like the Savage Worlds system and it really makes the Dark City Games really shine! The only issue is that it’s a 'long' adventure. This sample game took about 6 hours to play from start to finish. I hope that the actual adventure will be faster since I'm more confident on the rules and the like.

Warrior Heroes - The rise of a star?

2008-12-24T13:31:00.000-08:00

Warrior Heroes - Armies and Adventures

I finally got through enough of the rulebook to give this game a play. I have had ATZ (All Things Zombie) from Two Hour Wargames for a while, but had yet to try it out (I’ve since decided to stay in fantasy/ historical 25mm gaming). I’ve been meaning to purchase their fantasy version of their system, but when I saw this, I jumped at a chance. The rulebook is fairly robust, but that’s due to all the options that this game gives. I really need to get more historical/fantasy basic troops (I have a ton of hero types, but general troops are sorely lacking).

With that preamble taken care of, I followed the rules of how to make a star (there is a very nice download that goes through it as well). Since I had just bought a bunch of Confrontation models, I felt that the easiest army would be the Brethren.

Star – unnamed
Brethren (from the heart of Ekra) – Full Sun alignment
Rep: 4
Hardiness: 1
Weapon: Long Sword (IMP 5, FR 1”, MIN 4)
AC: 4 (scale)
Melee troop – Warrior (Elite Trained)
Social Standing: 2

This gave me 6 CV of followers. As it turns out, I rolled the exact same thing for all of them:
3x Brother Sergeants, Rep: 4, AC 4, Lance (IMP 7/4), Move 12; Elite trained

It’s funny that my star is the only non-mounted troop in the bunch!

So, March 986: My small band is in search of evil on the borders of Ekra. Most of the month goes by peacefully except for a confrontation in a small village. It seems that a knight and his retainers (a mixture of 8 foot troops) from Altengard were in the area and only some calm talking on my part, the matter ended peacefully (6d for the knight vs. 4d for Star and amazingly both passed 4 dice)!

[I rolled 10 CV worth of characters and ended up with a knight, 5 arquebusiers, 2 skirmishers and a spearman. We had a round of talk the talk in a village – clear terrain and it ended peacefully.]

April 986: We had a little problem with the local Authorities in a city of Altengard. It seemed that they did not want 4 heavily armed ‘characters’ in their town and I’d be damned if I was going to surrender my family’s blade. The knight would not back down no matter what and in a moment of distraction, charged me!

[I again got a walk the walk result on the encounter table with an even amount of CV – 9 in this case. Again there was a knight, 2 skirmishers, 3 infantry and 2 spearmen. This time, the knight scored a single success more than the star and the battle was on! I decided that the battle took place on one of the many city streets in the area. I don't have many buildings so I made due.]

Initial knight attack – Evenly matched (2 successes each).

Turn 1 (K6/S6): Nothing happens

Here you can see the 'city' setup. The small walled squares in the middle represent buildings. The other two sergeants move around to intercept the foot soldiers!

Turn 2 (K2/S1): Swordsmen charges star, passes enough dice and with a 1 pass on the quick move table gets to melee. 1S/1B (1 Success/1 Block) vs. 2S and are evenly matched. Knight attacks 6d vs. 4d and pushes Star back 1”. Melee continues 6d vs. 3d – Evenly matched. Knight’s footmen move to a side street to engage. Brother Sergeant charges (<>Turn 3 (S5/K2): Knight attacks Brother 6d vs. 4d (1S vs. 3S) and is only stunned due to protected armor (lance is IMP 4 since it isn’t the first round of combat). Melee continues 1d vs. 4d, but both are evenly matched with 1S. Swordsman moves and attacks outnumbered Brother with 4d vs. 4d (2S vs. 1S) and the horse rears back 1”. Melee continues 4d vs. 4d (4S vs. 2S) – Brother OOF. The closest two models make a morale check and one of the Sergeants routs!

Turn 4 (K3/S1): Knight charges flank of the final sergeant and a melee ensues (I determined that the sergeant would not get its lance special since it was being attacked in the flank) 6d vs. 4d – Evenly matched. Brother attacks knight 4d vs. 6d (4S to 3S). Melee continues 4d vs. 5d – Evenly matched!

The Knight Charges the flank of the sergeant on a side street!

Turn 5 (S5/K4): Knight attacks sergeant 6d vs. 4d (4S vs. 1S/1B). Brother OOF.

Postgame results: Both OOF sergeants are still OOF and the router is heading for home. The star completely recovers, but I determined that he was captured. On the advancement front, the star gets a Rep increase to 5, a Hardiness increase to 2 and a social standing increase to 3, but is immediately back to 2 due to being taken out of the fight (which I don't think I agree on the social advance).

Yep, it took longer to create the scenario for the second month than it took to actually play the game. How will the star get out of the dungeons alive? – Stay tuned.

Escort the Priestess - SBH game

2008-12-23T10:09:00.000-08:00

While Durgon and Flashfire recover from their wounds, Jareth is enlisted by the local church to escort a priestess of renown to a nearby shrine. The only issue is the shortest route is through Wolfen lands. The Wolfen are very territorial, but hopefully a small band of adventures will be able to slip through undetected.

Being down two characters and two still recovering from their wounds, I am in a real pinch since my total combat value will still be used for the game (300 points). To that end, I enlist the use of some followers. I figure with two spearmen and a swordsman that I’ll have enough muscle to get through the Wolfen territory. Also, it’s all I can buy with my fame points so it will have to do. Followers don’t add to your total combat value so it’s a good way to supplement your warband if you have the fame points.

I roll for the enemy warband and it’s going to be 3/2 bigger than my own. That’s means I’m going to be facing off against 400 points of Wolfen. It looks like I’m going to be hard pressed in this game.

The Wolfen (399 pts)

Onyx @ 132
2x Hunters @ 57
3x Fangs @ 51

Models from Rackham - I got a great deal on them

Onyx – Personality (132)
Quality: 3+, Combat: 4
Special Rules: Big, Hero, Long Move, Stealth, Tough

Hunter (57)
Quality: 4+, Combat: 3
Special Rules: Big, Forester, Long Move, Stealth, Shooter Medium

Fang (51)
Quality: 4+, Combat: 3
Special Rules: Big, Forester, Long Move, Savage

Here are the stats for the Priestess (named Verlia):

Verlia – Personality (65)
Quality: 4+, Combat: 2
Special Rules: Cleric, Fearless, Independent*, Magic Resistance, Pacifist*, Short Move, Stealth, Tough

New Special Rules:

Independent (0) – Models with the Independent special rule do not gain the benefits (or penalties) from a figure with the Leader special ability.

Pacifist (-5) – A model with the Pacifist special ability is oppose to the use of violence as a means to settling disputes. As such, this model may not move into base to base contact with an enemy figure, does not grant any modifier in hand to hand combat and may not initiate combat with an enemy figure.

Scenario rules

If Verlia makes it across the board in 10 turns or less, the player will gain 10 x # non-killed models in silver pennies. If it takes 15 turn or less, the payment is 5 x # non-killed models in silver pennies. If she makes it across the board at all, it’s 3 x # non-killed models in silver pennies.

Since this was played solo, I had to set up the ambush rules. The Wolfen does not start on the board, but roll a single die on their turn to determine if they are placed and get to take actions. Each model in the enemy warband will take a Quality test rolling 3 dice to determine how far they must set up. On 3 successes, not within 1 medium; on 2 successes, not within 2 Mediums bands; on 1 success, not within 3 Mediums bands and at no successes, must be set up at the board edge.

Turn / Activation #
1 / 6+
2 / 4+
3 / 2+
4 / Automatic

Turn 1: Jareth rolls a 1 and 2 and the activation ends with only Erdan and Pip moving up. The Wolfen do not activate since I rolled a 2 for them.

Turn 2: The Heroes all move up and the Wolfen again don’t activate [1] - Dice rolls in bold.

Turn 3: Heroes move up and are close to the center woods. The Wolfen activate this turn with a roll of a 6. Onyx passes 2Q and sets up within 2 M. The Hunters pass 0 and 1Q and the Fangs pass 0,1 and 2Q. With the Wolfen having Forester, there is going to be a lot of ambush bonuses (I rolled up the terrain randomly).

It's an ambush - Protect the Priestess at all costs (road from terrain pack by Your Move Games)!

Turn 4: Erdan takes a shot at the Fang in the open, but misses [3 + 2 vs. 3 + 5]. A Hunter was closer, but due to Stealth and next to the woods couldn’t be targeted. I assumed that a character could then ignore that model for targeting purposes. Onyx moves up and with the help of a fang, kills a spearman [5 + 5 vs. 2 + 3].

Turn 5: Erdan shoots at Onyx (closest in view), but fails to hit [5 + 1 vs. 4 + 5]. The swordsman moves next to Onyx and the spearman attacks [4 + 1 vs. 3 + 1] and forces Onyx to retreat. Xaria tries to transfix a fang with a 1 power spell and succeeds as it rolls a 1. Onyx attacks swordsman, but are evenly matched [5 + 1 vs. 2 + 4]. A hunter ambushes pip and kills him [5 + 3 vs. 2 + 2]. The transfixed fang rolls 3 dice, but fails all dice.

It's looking grim for the heroes with Oynx blocking the route out!

Turn 6: Erdan shoots at the hunter than just killed Pip and knocks him down [5 + 2 vs. 3 + 2]. Xaria casts a spell and fails two dice so this will end the heroes’ activation. She wants to spell the knocked down hunter, but the better target is the transfixed one and kills it [4 +5 vs. 3 + 1]. She was outside the short range band on the fallen model, but not the transfixed one. I went with the better kill chance. Onyx attacks the swordsman and knocks him down [5 + 4 vs. 2 + 4]. The Fang next to the swordsman gruesome kills the fallen warrior [6 + 6 vs. 2 + 4] – he’s savage after all! A fang ambushes Jareth after the heroes retreat and they are evenly matched
[5 + 3 vs. 2 + 6]!

The Hunter in the forground is 'Fallen' (notice the new counters).

Turn 7: The Spearman attacks and knocks a fang down [4 + 6 vs. 3 + 3], but the heroes can’t capitalize since Jareth rolls two failing activation dice and the turn passes. The fallen warrior stands up, but then Onyx fails two dice as well and can only move up.

Turn 8: Spearman gets 3 successes and power attacks a fang knocking it down [1 + 6 vs. 2 + 3]. Jareth rolls 3 successes and power attacks the fallen model but can’t get a kill stroke [4 + 1 vs. 3 + 2]! Xaria moves back and spells the fallen fang [4 + 6 vs 3 + 4] killing it! Onyx power attacks the spearman and gruesomely kills him [5 + 5 vs. 1 + 2]. The heroes move back, but Xaria flees. On the 50% loss morale check, Verlia flees and the heroes have nothing to escort and retire off the board.

Wrap up: What a mess. The Wolfen builds with how the terrain was set up were brutal. Being able to avoid the penalties from the forest with a big move made them a tough opponent. Add in the fact that they are Big and with ambush, they are a force to be reckoned with. At 132 points, I was worried on how much I spent on a single model, but Onyx was worth every penny. I guess the next campaign game will be to save the priestess!

I was awarded no silver pennies since I lost the priestess, but I did gain 102 VPs. With 4.5 shares (Followers count for shares, but don’t actually gain XP), Jareth and Erdan gain 2 XP. Pip and Xaria gain 1 apiece. Pip is again wounded (+1 Q per rulebook this time), but at least I’ll have my full warband for next time. I’m down to 61 silver pennies after paying for the upkeep costs on my warband (after each game, you lose a number of silver pennies based on the number of characters played in the game) and the lost followers. I’m still working on this part of the campaign rules so things might be changing as I play

Final Thoughts: I don’t want all these games to be on equal footing so that’s why I made a table to determine the amount of the enemy’s point total based on the heroes warband, but an extra 100 points might be a bit too much! Of course, if I would have rolled 2/3 of my warband size, I wouldn’t be complaining. I do need to tweak that chart to make the values a little closer. Lastly, I’m not sure if the point costs for the new special rules are right, but since they were used on a model that didn’t adjust either warband’s size; I’m okay with them for the time being. Honestly, Pacifist probably should be adjusted (or just be a scenario special) since that model can just be ignored by the enemy since it can’t do anything in the battle in anyway.

New Campaign rules

Followers: Each character participating in the game may locate a follower for the upcoming battle by spending fame points. The point cost of the model is the amount of fame points that must be spent in order to recruit the follower. The follower’s point cost must be less than or equal to 2/3 the recruiting character’s point cost (round normally). Followers count for purposes of XP shares, but do not gain XP. If killed in action, must be paid 1/10 their point cost in silver pennies (rounding up) or 1/5 their point cost in fame points (rounding normally). A follower that survives the battle may be kept for the next battle by spending 1/5 their point cost in fame points. A follower will stay around for a total of 2 battles before seeking instruction somewhere else.

Upkeep costs: At the end of the battle, a number of silver pennies must be spent for the warband’s general upkeep (provisions and maintenance). The cost is dependent on the number of models participating in the game. Followers count for this total, but Mercenaries do not. If the group does not have enough money to pay for the upkeep, each model that did not get the required upkeep makes a 2 dice quality test. Each failing results lowers the quality or combat of the model by 1 for the next fight.

# of models -> Cost
1-3 -> 10 SPs (Silver pennies)
4-6 -> 12 SPs
7-8 -> 16 SPs
9-10 -> 22 SPs
11-12 -> 30 SPs
13-15 -> 40 SPs

Character Advancement: The following table shows the number of XP needed to move to the next level in both quality and combat. To add a special ability, it cost the special’s point cost in XP (so heavy armor cost 5 XP). In order to add any of the personality specials (Leader, Hero Tough, etc), you must first spend 10 XP to become a ‘personality’ and then they cost as above. After any expenditure, remember to recalculate your character’s new point total.

Quality / Combat / XP
-- / 1 / 1
5+ / 2 / 4
4+ / 3 / 9
3+ / 4 / 16
2+ / 5 / 25

So to raise your combat from 2 to 3 costs 9 XP points.

That's it for now. Look for the Priestess rescue in the next episode!

More painted miniatures?

2008-12-12T23:23:00.000-08:00

Yep, I can't believe it either, but while I was finishing those boxers, I finished painting some fantasy figures I had in various states of completion. I like the cleric one so much (mini from Privateer Press) that I made an upcoming scenario for her. With my vacation done, I’m not sure when I’ll get back into painting, but I have plenty of unpainted Warmachine and Hordes models that could keep me busy until… well, forever!

In other news, Fantasy Flight Games were selling off their stock of Confrontation and AT-43 models for 66% off and I couldn’t resist getting my hands on some fairly cheap, pre-painted plastic miniatures (most boxes were 10 dollars apiece). In the end I spent way too much, but I now have a good selection of models from the Army of the Griffin and the Army of the Wolf. I’m definitely going to be using them in an upcoming scenario!

Friday Night Fights on Pay per View!

2008-12-12T23:10:00.000-08:00

In honor of the first thing that I have painted in a very long time (months probably), I wanted to get them used in a game as quick as possible, These boxers are from U-Play Sports (a division of Two Hour Wargames – THW for short) for use in their new (to me anyway) boxing game called Friday Night Fights. The price was right and even though they aren’t in the normal 28mm scale that I play, I picked 5 boxers up. They painted up pretty nicely all things considered.

Here are my 5 boxers all ready to go!

So I decided what better time than to have some boxing matches then on Friday night! Convenient, eh? I played a couple of face to face games with the system and even though it’s a lot of dice rolling, it’s fairly entertaining and you can get through an 8 to 10 round match in about 30 to 45 minutes. In classic THW style, there are rules to play solo and I had a couple hours to kill, so why not build a boxer and see how I do in a couple of warm-up matches? Since your first few bouts can be short 4 round matches, I figured I could get in 3 or 4 games before I needed to finish up. There are even boxers with ranks and the like in the back to make this process even easier.

So without further ado:

Enter Jacob “Mac” McGrath, a 5’8” 162 lb Middleweight with decent boxing skills (level 4) and is fairly aggressive (level 3), but his real advantage is his Quick Reflexes.
…And in this corner weighing in at 158 pounds, Lamar Hart. His key ability is his resilience. Can the new comer had down this vet who is currently 10-4?

Round 1: The boxers move about the ring, but neither boxer gains any advantage. The move in and Lamar scores a flurry of punches which Jacob answers back with a flurry of his own. Lamar seeing an opening lands a series of quick jabs, but Jacob again answers with a series of body blows before the referee steps in. Late in the round… Both boxers stay away from the ropes. Jacob hits with a quick strike to which Lamar covers and the referee steps in. *Ding* It looks like Jacob has won this round.

Round 2: Jacob cuts off the ring and lands a solid punch. It looks like both boxers are reaching into their reserves and Jacob tries to take control (both boxers use bonus dice), but Lamar covers up and the referee splits them apart. Late in the round… Again both boxers can’t seem to force their opponent into the ropes and after a couple landed quick jabs, Lamar covers and the referee steps in. *Ding*
Another round goes in favor of Jacob.

Round 3: Both boxer step and move, but can gain no advantage and the referee finally pulls them apart. Late in the round… Lamar manages a flurry of jabs… a second set of body blows and a third… and a fourth set of punches followed by a solid uppercut. Jacob looks to be digging deep into his reserves to get himself out of the corner, but another shot for Lamar and Jacob holds on and finally the referee stops the onslaught (Jacob rolled 3 successes on 3 dice and Lamar got 3 successes on 5 dice)! *Ding* Definitely a round won by Lamar.

Round 4: Jacob connects with a solid uppercut and Lamar is backed into the ropes, but the referee steps in before Jacob can capitalize. Late in the round… Jacob cuts off the ring and scores a combo putting Lamar in the corner, but Lamar holds on and even manages to score a jab before the referee can split the boxers. *Ding*

Winner by Unanimous Decision, Jacob McGrath (39 to 37)! Crowd goes wild.
My first win gains me 6 fame points and a 1-0 record. I don’t get any stat increases so we move to the second match.
…And in this corner weighing in at 154 lbs, Edgar Garcia. He’s known for his decent boxing skill and his slipperiness in the ring. Can Jacob stay undefeated?

Round 1: Both boxers dance about the ring, but Jacob scores a decent combo forcing Edgar into the corner. Using some of his inner strength, Edgar holds on and the referee pulls them apart. Late in the round… Edgar stalks Jacob and gets two full sets of punches in before Jacob covers up and the referee steps in. *Ding* Round won by Jacob.

Round 2: Jacob comes out swinging backing Edgar to the ropes, but Edgar holds out and the referee steps in. Late in the round… Again Jacob sees an opening pushing Edgar to the ropes, but fails to land any solid punches. Referee pulls them apart. *Ding* Round is tied!

Round 3: Coming out striking, but boxers and evenly matched and the referee resets them. Late in the round… Jacob pushes Edgar to the ropes and scores a solid left hook... followed by a right hook! Edgar holds on and Jacob gets in another hit before the referee pulls them apart! *Ding* Round won by Jacob!

Round 4: The actions stays in the center of the ring where Edgar gets in a solid uppercut forcing Jacob to the ropes, but the referee steps in before Edgar can mount much of an offensive. Late in the round… Both boxers dance in the center of the ring and the round ends with them evenly matched *Ding* Round goes to Edgar.

Winner by Unanimous Decision, Jacob McGrath (39 to 38)! I get 3 more Fame Points bringing me to 9 and a 2-0 record.

Edgar wants a rematch so the stage is already set! The boxers smack gloves and the bell rings!

Round 1: Edgar gets sent to the ropes, but they are evenly matched so the referee finally steps in. Late in the round… Boxers move about in the center of the ring, but no telling blows and the round comes to the close *Ding* Tied round.

Round 2: Boxers stay in the center of the ring, Jacob connects with a flurry of punches and Edgar retaliates with a set of his own. Jacob lands a solid left hook and manages to take control using his inner fire (Jacob uses 3 bonus dice). Edgar’s in real trouble in the corner (on the KO table, but Edgar doesn’t add any bonus dice)… Edgar is knocked to the canvas and doesn’t get back up. Jacob scores his first KO of his career!

You can see my FNF setup here. The left container are the rolls for Boxer 1 and the right one is for Boxer 2. The KO of Edgar Garcia in the second round!

Since this is my third win, I can try to raise a stat and I pick Power. With two failures, I manage to increase my Power to 3.

I did get a fourth bout in, but I’m not going to detail the entire bout. It ended with a TKO against Chris Scorch in the fourth round and I failed to add to my Quickness stat. Here is a part of that fourth bout.

Round 1 (early): Jacob scores a solid left hook (2pts) after pushing Chris to the ropes, followed by a solid right hook (2pts) pushing him to the corner. Chris covers dipping into his reserve (adds 2 bonus dice), but a third solid hook connects (3pts). Chris is in real trouble (KO table and add 2 bonus dice), but no knock down (3pts). By this time, the only dice Chris is rolling is his bonus dice having lost all 3 boxing dice and losing the aggression/quickness dice due to being in the corner. Jacob pours it on scoring a combo (3pts) followed by a solid left hook (3pts). Chris is again in trouble but manages to hold on (3pts). Jacob fights him off with a set of punches (3pts) and an upper cut (3pts). Again Chris is in trouble, but holds on (3pts). Jacob scores another combo (3pts) and a solid body blow (3pts) and Chris is back in peril, but holds on (3pts). Jacob scores a combo (3pts) and a solid punch (3pts) and Chris is in trouble, but holds on (3pts). Finally the referee steps in (2pts)…

Yep, I scored 55 points in the first part of the round. Now against a real person, this shouldn’t happen since you could throw enough bonus dice to break the cycle (in theory), but I was rolling 8 dice on both the Taking Control and the Clinch table against zero dice from my opponent from early on and it was a beating. This cycle happened again in the fourth round, but I managed to get the needed successes on the KO table to have him hit the canvas.

So after 4 bouts, Jacob McGrath is 4-0 with 2 KOs and a fame of 12.

Kill the menacing Chieftain - SBH game

2008-11-30T23:19:00.000-08:00

“Brave Men and Women – we are in desperate need of heroes to find Or’lath and his band of murderers. He is wanted by the crown for multiple attacks of the surrounding farms. A reward of 65 silver pennies will be given to the band that can kill Or’lath and 38 silver pennies for the death of Murlk, his Shaman. Others in service of Or’lath will be worth a nominal amount”

That is the posting that got Jareth into this mess three days ago. All of dirt, grime and crappy rations were worth it if they could get the drop on the huge bugbear Or’lath. Even after finding the trail, it was still mid-day before Jareth and his friends finally found the Chieftain and his minions that were running amok in the nearby countryside. The stage was set near a burnt out husk of a farm building…

This is the first battle for Jareth and his (self- proclaimed) Saviors of the Savage Lands (see earlier post). The mission is simple; kill Or’lath the Bugbear leader and/or his Shaman Murlk to save the nearby farms. This game was played with the Song of Blades and Heroes rule set. I decided that it would be easiest if I just played against a normal 300 pt warband to get myself re-acquainted with the rules before I made a large campaign out of the thing (I played a quick game at Origins – I split a force with a very cool gent who let me kill both of his savage orcs in two combats. Yep, I can sure roll 1s with the best of them). Both the Chieftain and the Shaman would be rewarded for cost in money if they were killed during the scenario but other models would be worth 25% their cost (not sure what the money is going to be used for just yet). The total amount in money would also be the amount of fame points (used to buy followers) that the characters would receive. Experience will be determined on the models killed in cost/10 with surviving characters getting a full share and OOA (out of action) models receiving one half share rounding all fractions normally at the end (not sure how I’ll handle XP yet either). Yep, I’m making these rules up as I go…

All Models from the ‘evil’ band were taken straight from the rulebooks. There were:
1 Bugbear Chieftain @ 65 pts
1 Orc Shaman @ 38 pts
3 Hobgoblin Bowman (used crossbowman stats) @ 38 pts
3 Savage Orc Warrios @ 27 pts
Total cost: 298 pts.

Here is the board layout. I didn't have a 3' square felt so I made do with what I had.

Turn 1: Heroes are considered the attackers and go first. I activate Erdan with 2 dice and roll snake eyes. Play passes to the Villains (or as I called them, baddies). Have played this game before, the quality 4+ figures all stay close to the leader to help them with their activation dice (now to be called AD). The three archers get an impressive group move that gets them close to the defensive hill in the middle.

Turn 2: Most heroes move up, but Xaria fails both AD dice and play passes with Flashfire getting a chance. The evil band continues to move up. Two archers attempt to shoot Jareth (one even aims) but both fail to do anything

Turn 3: All the heroes actually get to move forward and are taking command of the hill. Durgon get surrounded by three attackers and is unable to stave off the incoming attacks and is killed [6 + 3 vs. 3 +1 (die rolls in bold)].

The situation right before Durgon is slain. Notice how far up he and Pip are.

Turn 4: Erdan shoots at an archer making it ‘fall’, but Jareth fails 2 AD and the turn passes to the Baddies. The chieftain moves up to Pip with a buddy and slays him [6 +5 vs. 3 + 2].

Turn 5: Heroes seeing their chances dwindling conducts an all out advance towards the chieftain but Flashfire gets only a single success and can’t press the attack. Jareth recoils from an attack which allows Flashfire to be surrounded by enemies and is killed by the chieftain [5 + 4 vs. 4 + 1]. Heroes must make a morale check due to being at 50%. All heroes flee one or two movements but none off the board.

After the heroes fled from the loss of Flashfire. Perhaps it was just a strategic retreat?

Turn 6: (The turning point for the heroes. I was so ‘inspired’ by the action; I had to go tell my wife!) Erdan moves forward ignoring the closest savage orc (Erdan is worth 60 pts so he can ignore a model that is 27) and shoots the chieftain [6 + 5 vs. 1 + 4] slaying him! One bowman flees the board. The elf moves forward with grace and determination shooting his bow and manages to catch the chieftain square between the eyes felling him. All the evil models move to get close to the shaman.

The lone elf makes ready his bow...

Turn 7: There is an ineffective shot from Erdan, but Jareth knocks a bowman down. The bowman stands just as a buddy helps knock Jareth down.

Things don't look good for the Jareth (who can barely be seen).

Turn 8: Jareth stands and Erdan shoots killing an orc warrior [4 + 4 vs. 1 + 3]. Jareth gets surrounded by three attackers and is gruesomely killed [6 + 3 vs. 2 + 1]. The remaining heroes must take two morale checks which doesn’t make either run off the board.

Turn 9: Erdan moves, performs a powerful attack and gruesomely kills an orc warrior [6 + 4 vs. 1 + 2]. This forces two morale checks (the kill and @ 50%) and most flee at least one movement. The shaman flees off the board. Interestingly, the now lead model made 6 successes @ 4+! The Orcs try to consolidate, but with 4+ quality, it’s slow going.

Turn 10: Xaria moves to cast a level 1 transfix spell on an archer behind cover who fails the check [3]. Erdan aims at the transfixed model killing it [5 + 5 vs. 2 + 2]. The remaining archer gets 3 successes, moves and aims at Erdan pushing him back [3 + 3 vs. 1 + 3].

Turn 11: Erdan shoots archer knocking him down [4 + 4 vs. 3 + 2]. Xaria seeing an opening moves and casts a power 1 spell at fallen archer, but it resists [2 +3 vs. 4 + 3]! The archer only gets a single success and stands.

Xaria in the forefront trying to slay the knocked down archer!

Turn 12: Erdan fails on 2 AD [2, 1] and play passes. Archer moves up to attack Xaria and they exchange blows with no real victor [1 + 3 vs. 2 + 2].

Turn 13: Erdan moves and attacks archer but merely pushes him off the hill [5 + 4 vs. 5 + 2]. Xaria casts a power 2 transfix spell at the archer and it fails [4, 1]. The final warrior moves to engage Xaria, but the archer is still transfixed [4, 2, 1].

Turn 14: Erdan again fails on 2 AD and play passes. Warrior attacks Xaria and the Mage manages to push it back [2 + 3 vs. 5 + 2]. The archer still transfixed [5, 3, 1].

Turn 15: Erdan shoots at transfixed archer and kills him [3 + 6 vs. 5 + 3]. Xaria fails to activate. The final warrior rolls 3 AD, but only gets a single success. Move to engage Xaria.

Turn 16: Erdan gets 3 successes and performs a powerful attack with Xaria by his side gruesomely kills the final warrior [4 + 4 vs. 1 + 1].

Post game report: The heroes gained 98 silver pennies, gained 98 fame points and also gained 195 exp. With only 4 shares that gives 5 exp (195 / 10 / 4 = 4.8 rounds to 5) to both surviving members (namely Erdan and Xaria) and 2 exp (195 / 10 / 4 / 2 = 2.4 rounds to 2) to the rest. Both Flashfire and Durgon received grievous wounds and will miss the next scenario. Jareth and Pip were wounded and be a -1 combat for the next game. It looks like I’ll need some reinforcements if I plan on winning the next one!

Final analysis: This game rocked. I was on the ‘edge of my seat’ the entire time. It played quick and the action was awesome (you can see the measuring sticks I made in the pictures which helped a ton. I definitely need to make range sticks for shooters). After the heroes lost 3 of their numbers, I thought I was going to have to follow Or’lath and his band in a campaign considering how awesome they were doing (and it looked like the heroes were going to be wiped out)! The tide turned when Erdan shot and killed the leader since I had just reread the rules that morning and could skip the closest warrior. Like I said, I had visions of Lord of the Rings during that and had to explain my excitement to my wife (much to her chagrin). Actually, if you think about it, Erdan did almost all the work himself (Xaria transfixed the archer that allowed Erdan to finish him off).

The only issue with this game is that I played it to the last model. Once both personalities of Or’lath’s warband were dead or had fled the table, the rest should have dissolved away (they didn’t have any reason to continue really) and I maybe I should have stated that in my pregame decisions. Another sore spot I had is once the heroes had been taken to 50% and no casualties on the other side, it felt dirty of me to continue the game (none of their personalities were gone at that time however), but I don’t have the answer on how to fix that one. Of course, that would have ended it in turn 5 and I’d not have had the joy of the Erdan shot! Perhaps some self preservation check or some such.

Saviors of the Savage Lands

2008-11-30T00:59:00.000-08:00

Since I bought the Song of Blades and Heroes rule book at Origins, I have been inching to play it. I wouldn't say it's the only reason that I finally got the work completed on my gaming area, but it is definitely one of the reasons. The first thing I needed to do was to create a warband for a campaign. I figured that I would stay within the 300 pts (with 100 pts of personalities) and after thinking about it, I came up with this. As you can see from the picture, the band poses for a picture near the ruins of a farmhouse.

Jareth - Personality (60)
Quality 3+, Combat 3
Special Rules: Leader

Xaria - Personality (38)
Quality 4+, Combat 2
Special Rules: Magic-User

Erdan (60)
Quality 3+, Combat 4
Special Rules: Forester, Shooter: Long

Flashfire (49)
Quality 5+, Combat 5
Special Rules: Animal, Flying, Heavy Armor, Long Move, Shooter: Short

Durgon (50)
Quality 3+, Combat 4
Special Rules: Fearless, Heavy Armor, Short Move

Pip (40)
Quality 3+, Combat 3
Special Rules: Free Disengage, Shooter: Short, Short Move, Stealth

I hope to be using this band of characters soon. We will see how they do in their first outing!

Gaming Table

2008-11-28T21:23:00.001-08:00

As you can see in this picture, we (my dad and myself) are working on making a gaming table. Two actually, since the construction of a second one wasn't going to be all that different from the first. I was going to have them at gut height while standing, but in the end went with about normal table height off the ground. So with a single piece of 4x8' plywood and a few 2x4 boards I will have 2 4x4' gaming tables. As you can see, the first table is taking shape.

I'll spare you with the complete how-to guide as there are enough of those already on the internet. Once at the completed stage (at least building wise) it was time to stain them. At the right, you can see the drop cloth under the table ready for the staining.

The gaming area!

2008-11-28T13:19:00.001-08:00

The first post is always the hardest or in my case, since this is a gaming blog, the start up is always the hardest. I have a lot of gaming stuff, but I never seem to play with it. I have countless miniatures, rulebooks and solo games that go unused since I don't ever 'feel' like playing. In late August, I decided to change that. I figured if I started a gaming blog that I would play more games so I would stay current.

The first mission was a place to actually game. Folding tables or dining room tables are nice, but the game needs to be cleaned up once the day is done or you get some angry family members. I have an unfinished basement that I was leary to do anything with since the more stuff you put into the area, the harder it will be to move all that stuff once the time and money for finishing the basement begins! Of course, all of my gaming stuff is actually down there, so why not add a bit more to the 'clutter' and start on my project! That in mind, I figured that I'd need some more lighting and a couple of gaming tables to get this off of the ground.